Mathilde Denize

The practice of Mathilde Denize focuses on painting, installation work, sculptural composition, performance, and video. Denize's work is born of a desire to bring meaning out of a fragmented present. A collector of discarded objects, she often cuts up her old paintings and then weaves them into new forms using found materials. In this way, new works emerge from the remnants of the past, a metaphor for the complicated existence of human beings. Inspired by great experimental artists such as Carolee Schneemann, she uses the body as much as paint. Her clothes, which often resemble a sexualized female form, serve as both armor and camouflage. Her paintings are an open diary, punctuating and dialoguing with her sculptures. Through subtle gestures, Denize builds up a collection of forgotten and anonymous forms, witnesses to a contemporary archaeology.