Emmanuelle Rapin
Self-portrait in Levitation 1
2022

Needle perforations on black paper, embroidered with black cotton thread and Sulky Holoshimmer thread by Gunold, 408 x 130.

Placed like a fresco on the ceiling, it is necessary to raise the head to see it. It can be seen in all the directions, it has neither top nor bottom nor right nor left. It is in disorientation. The perforations that form the body allow light to pass through, which enhances the embroidery in the knot stitch that emerges
from the woman’s bust. This perforation is inspired by the emblematic scene of levitation in the film The Mirror (1975) by Andrei Tarkovski (1932-1986) The scene crystallizes love and death. When the gaze tilts the horizontality of the levitating body onto a vertical plane, the spectator recognizes an Assumption of the Virgin as represented by the Italian Mannerist and Baroque painters. Thus the body is in a contraposto position, one leg bent and the other folded indicates an upward impulse, the draperies reinforce the impression of movement by flying off to the left side. Levitation concentrates the passivity of the elevation and the dynamics of a jump. It is the place of convergence of gravity and weightlessness. The body of the perforated work Self-portrait in Levitation 1 is in tension, the raised arms form a curve. A celestial vault.

€ 18000.-