Mathilde Albouy

Mathilde Albouy is a French sculptor who creates works which unravel the dynamics between gender, power and domesticity. Working with rather brittle, tough materials such as lead, tin and poplar, Albouy drafts oversized domestic items such as hair pins and combs. Once enlarged, the teeth of these combs appear like grotesque fangs or sharp weapons, heightening the coercive or violent capacity of this object used to keep women tidy or presentable. In another series of works, Albouy renders creased paper fortune tellers in lead, with this brutal material choice eroding the carefree sensibility of this childhood game. This transformation of everyday items that runs throughout Albouy’s work has a Dadaist sentiment to it, yet the explicit interaction with the contours of gender and sexuality links Albouy’s sculptures to the work of artists such as Louise Bourgeois, Helen Chadwick or Tracey Emin. In Albouy’s world, the repression that lays dormant within private spheres is made explicit.