HUIS CLOS
Through a constant interplay of light and shadow, color and contrasts, Yasmine Laraqui shows us scenes of everyday life behind closed doors. Though neutral in appearance, the surrealist dimension that forms the backbone of these deceptively mundane images propels us into the absurd. Set in a hotel room, Three in a room shows two young people indolently lying on beds while on the left a third character - whose legs only are visible - seems to be holding Monet’s Woman with a Parasol. Inviting to reflect on the relationships between these passive protagonists, here the artist evokes the instinctive voyeurism inherent in contemporary society.
In the series ‘Lights’, the artists stages her character in a baroque interior. Vanity Duck features two female characters, one of whom is wearing a bird head mask and holding a skull. In the manner of a transfer of power ceremony, the skull is here used as an instrument of transfer, while doubts remain about the identity of the holder and the successor.
Kristi Jones - art curator
Yasmine Laraqui’s dreamlike, romanic and sensual photographic portraits are nonetheless realistic. The artist’s fascination for psychology is reflected in her preference for complex characters, whose different facets she explores through her artistic sensibility. Beyond the immediate function of representation, these portraits seem to reveal the strength of the psyche and repressed deep longings. The result is a perfect symbiosis between the photographer and the model abandoned to the whim of the artist through the act of portraiture.
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