FABIENNE FRANCOTTE | STILL LIFE

Fabienne explores these storytelling elements further in a series of imaginary portraits
titled It Did (Not) Happen. This portrait series makes conceptual leaps in balancing realistic
impressions of facial features with calligraphic and gestural brushwork and painterly abstraction.
Language boundaries are surpassed here as facial expressions and the eyes, in particular,
speak volumes that the mouth and the spoken tongue cannot. The termite-ridden textures of the
canvas suggest a passage of time and a repetition of relapses and traumatic episodes
necessary for the complex healing process.

In The Fragmented Body, a series of mixed media work on brown cardboard
sheets, she depicts disembodied segments of the male and female human bodies. Phantom

limbs float in thoughtful spaces blushed with reds and blues. On closer inspection, the arms,
legs and torsos carry a darker and bloodier story of violence, hurt and mutilation. Fabienne
quotes the artist Louise Bourgeois stating that blue represents peace, meditation and escape.
The pictures provide an outlet for hurt and despair by giving the act of suffering a voice;
conversely, they create a space for the audience to participate in a transformative thinking
process.

The display of kneecap bone sculptures, titled Bones Don't Lie, comments on the body's resilience. As our
muscles and memories have the flexibility to both hold and release deep tensions, the skeletal
structures of our bodies present a different narrative. They are rugged, dense and compact, and
their aesthetic qualities reveal the capacity to possess suffering and grace simultaneously.
Fabienne focuses on the kneecap to reflect how one can metaphorically walk again after
suffering defeat, as the bone joint is pivotal in movement. The idea for the sculptures emerged
during the pandemic, and they show the fractures and traces of the production process. This
process implies that such faults cultivate the more nuanced aspects of beauty over time.

The communication of emotion and feeling is crucial in Fabienne's work. Nature Morte is a
physical translation of painful and overwhelming experiences people have suffered. A self-
taught artist, Fabienne's relationship with her art practice extends beyond academic
intellectualism and delves deeply into what it means to connect with people. Her work is about
being human in what seems to be a primarily dehumanised world devoid of moral values. She
sees the marginalised and creates bridges between worlds.