“A girl should be raised with the constant thought that one day she will be a man’s companion.” These are the opening words of A Woman’s Worth, a treatise on the practical and moral education of young girls published in 1893 (France) by Eline Roch. Over 145 pages, the author elaborates on the rules that young girls should follow in order to make good wives, mothers and citizens. At the invitation of publisher, The Eyes, artistic duo Elsa & Johanna have created a unique series, 12 Hours of Day and Night. Made in black and white traditional film, this series presents 24 portraits, for each hour of the day. The duo incarnates successively, Élodie in the kitchen at 6am, Ondine in the open-plan lounge at midday or again Janice in the billiard room at 10pm. Modelling in their own pictures, they perpetuate a tradition of self-portraiture as an act of self-affirmation. Photographing oneself as a woman becomes a way of liberating oneself from the male gaze, of deconstructing injunctions, but also of documenting one’s own condition. These portraits incarnate a plurality of feminine figures, confronting the norms imposed by Eline Roch with a freer and more complex vision. Serious, playful or melancholic, they remind us, in the manner of Cindy Sherman, that there are a thousand ways to be a woman.
All of the images, taken in enclosed spaces, express both confinement and liberty. Each scene, impregnated with domestic solitude, functions like a disguised interrogation into the place of women in contemporary society.
In association with The Eyes. Echoing the show Bovary Madame by Christophe Honoré presented from November 12 to 22 as part of the TNB Festival
