La Cage, le papier pleure 2020

Sandra Chevrier’s *La Cage, le papier pleure* is a mixed media piece, and it looks like she’s using gold leaf, collage, and oil paint. It’s a real process painting; you can see the history of how it was made. The surface is totally built up, collaged with comic book fragments that give it this wild texture. Then, like she’s breaking through, is this hyper-realist portrait. The mouth and eyes are painted so precisely, but they're set against this chaotic background. Check out the edges where the portrait and the collage meet. See how the gold leaf is torn, revealing the comic book pages underneath? It’s like a mask being peeled away, or maybe a struggle to break free. It reminds me of Sigmar Polke and his use of everyday materials. He used to use cheap, patterned fabrics as a canvas, incorporating the readymade design into his paintings. There’s a similar interest here in collapsing high and low, beauty and chaos. I love how Chevrier embraces the mess, letting the process become part of the final image. It feels honest.