Lured by a pearl necklace, like a fish by bait, a woman bites into it. Seduced by the desire for splendor and the Venusian promise of beauty, she incorporates the pearls, hides herself behind polished fingernails, and appears in the nude, yet masked, like Fritz Lang’s robot woman.

In their work Venusia, the artists Aline Bouvy and John Gillis create a collage out of clippings from fashion magazines against a black background and set them in motion. In this way, the artists create an animated collage suggestive of Surrealism whose trashy high-gloss aesthetics are enhanced by a monotonous soundtrack consisting of synthesized Baroque rhythm and blues. Based on the woman’s empty gaze, eyes repeatedly appear as a motif in the cosmos created by Bouvy and Gillis. They orbit and observe the different transformations in the sequences of images. It is as if they were filling the woman’s open 'vessels' with information from the social environment, which becomes a continuum comprised of islands of love, jewelry, and accessories.

In a rapid sequence of cuts in the last take, hundreds of faces from fashion magazines pass through a mask and bring the empty shell of the mechanical doll to life. They deconstruct the illusion of a society made up of individuals and expose it as a projection surface for a fetishized beauty cult.

Original soundtrack written and performed by Johnston Sheard
Additionnal editing and effects by Dominique Piccinato

Commissioned by Contour Biennale, 2007
Curated by Nav Haq