La Cage, le papier pleure 2020

Sandra Chevrier made this artwork, La Cage, le papier pleure, in her signature style of layering paint, gold leaf and comic book pages to create a surreal portrait. It's like she's building up and breaking down an image at the same time. I imagine her layering the collage, tearing it back, and then building up the oil paint around the remaining shapes. I wonder what she was thinking as she chose these particular comic book fragments? Are these pages from her childhood? There's a tension between the gold leaf, which feels precious and delicate, and the ripped comics that create this fragmented and distorted effect. You can see how the surface is built up with all these layers, each adding its own texture. The eyes, peering out from behind the collage, seem to be in conversation with the wider history of figurative painting. It makes me think about the way we construct identity from different sources, both personal and cultural. And it is an interesting take on how artists are in an ongoing dialogue, riffing off each other's ideas, and passing along energy through time.