Copperplate, digital photoprint
400 x 400 mm
Elke Desutter
Elke Desutter makes art about the human body — but not in the way you might expect. She photographs anonymous body parts, builds an archive, then cuts and reassembles them into new composite figures she calls a "Body of Bodies," removing faces so the focus shifts to what we all share rather than what sets us apart. She also works copper into her pieces, a metal that actually exists inside every human body, making the connection between material and subject literal.
In the Words of the Artist
Copperplate, digital photoprint, varnish
100 x 160mm
In my work, I dissociate the body as we know it, questioning contemporary taboos and expectations regarding the self. Using video, photo collage, and installation, I explore the body in all its glory — it is quite literally objectified. All images come from my own photographic archive.
My work oscillates between recognition and abstraction, between body and object, between persona and form, in an effort to confound the spectator and reinvent a corporal gaze. Using different skin tones, body parts, and cutaneous irregularities as a foundation, the corpus is pulled apart from its known shape and makes way for the emergence of a new image. Imperfections of the body and the skin are investigated, magnified, and recombined into a new Body of Bodies.
Copperplate, print on vinyl
225 x 360 mm
Collage gives me the freedom to combine and create different images of body parts into one ‘Body of Bodies’. Creating a new image by focusing on likenesses (looking at lines, wrinkles, scars, imperfections, skintones,...) between different bodies is a wholesome process that shows that we all start from a body and are more alike than we admit. Because there are no faces shown in my work, people feel less intimidated by the naked body parts, and it helps to desexualise the body.
Normalising the naked body. I desexualise the body and create a new body of bodies based on likenesses rather than differences. I don’t make a distinction between age, gender, or ethnicity in my work.
The body parts I use in my work are collected through anonymous photo sessions where the model chooses which part they would like photographed by me and donated to my archive. This part is very important to me to see how people look at their body and what they want to 'donate'. People tend to 'mentally' give away parts they are ashamed of, or proudly donate their most loved parts to my archive. Through collaborations with organisations, I organise an open call for participants.
Copperplate, photoprint on vinyl
350 x 250 mm
After taking the photograph, I first of all print all the pictures on a standard 10 x 15 cm format. These photographs are put in archive folders and are the starting point for creating new collages. I usually cut out all the body parts and then spread out these pictures on the floor to look for connections between the different images. These small collages could stay small, but could also function as scale models for the monumental photo-sculptures I make out of vinyl prints.
I don’t stick to using only the body parts. I use a lot of copper shapes and structures in my work. Copper is an essential mineral for our bodies. We have 80-120 mg of copper in our bodies. It helps with our energy levels, skin and hair pigment, elasticity of the skin, and is anti-inflammatory.
Combining the copper with the photographs gives me more options for shaping and connecting the body parts. The result is something between a collage, assemblage, and photosculpture.
Copperplate, digital photoprint, varnish
160 x 105 mm
Pipilotti Rist. When I first saw her video art, I was studying illustration. We saw her video ‘Ever is over all’ in a contemporary art class. I felt I couldn’t express myself the same way in drawing as I could through video art. That was a big chance in my practice, and it eventually made me change courses. The way she layers video in her work and manipulates colors was very freeing for me. Pipilotti describes her video work as slow-moving paintings.
Copperplate, digital photoprint, varnish
120 X 90 mm
Copperplate, print on vinyl
340 x 310 mm
About the Artist
After winning the Provincial Prize for Visual Arts of West Flanders, Elke Desutter began organizing and curating exhibitions such as Inside/out, Passion & Obsession, The Makeable Body, and Bokashi be. These exhibitions, along with her solo shows like Folded, Folding, Folds , 'A Titillating Evening Awaits', and ‘All Hands on Deck’, demonstrate her artistic versatility and establish her position as an artist within the Flemish art scene.
For over 16 years, Elke has been active in the arts sector, showcasing her work extensively across Flanders in cities such as Antwerp, Brussels, East-Flanders, and West-Flanders. Internationally, Elke's work has reached cities like New Orleans, Portland, Tokyo, Munich, Eindhoven, and Kranj. Her participation in international festivals, including the Kaos Festival (as artist in residence), Kolaj Fest, and her selection for the Zero Edition of the Women in Art Biennale in Brussels, has further strengthened her international recognition.
For Your Viewing Pleasure
What to watch, read, and experience, as curated by the Collé team.
SUZIE SHIN is a Korean-American collage artist, illustrator, and graphic designer based in Chicago. Her collage practice consists of abstract compositions made with magazine scraps that play with color, shape, and rhythm. The original artworks are either framed, printed on greeting cards, or adapted for tapestry throw blankets.
MATT BORUSSO is a San Francisco-based artist holding a BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and an MFA from Yale University School of Art. He has exhibited widely, with solo shows at Cloaca Projects, Steven Wolf Fine Arts, and 2nd Floor Projects in San Francisco, Black Ball Projects in Brooklyn, and group exhibitions in New York, Los Angeles, Mexico City, and Berlin.
JEFFERSON FOUQUET is a Paris-based floral set designer whose practice deconstructs classical composition, submerging flowers in urban environments, distorting them with paint and synthetic textures, and pushing arrangements toward sculpture and installation.
AGOSTO MACHADO is a Chinese-Spanish-Filipino-American performance artist, activist, archivist, and muse who has been a vital participant in New York's cultural and creative life since the early 1960s, spanning art, theater, performance, film, and the dawn of the gay liberation movement.
B. INGRID OLSON is a Chicago-based artist working across photography, sculpture, and architecture to explore the boundaries between body and space. Fragmenting and cropping her own body within the studio, her photographic works create tensions between interior experience and exterior, mirrored existence, while her sculptural reliefs invoke corporeal form through concave curves and molded recesses.
Out and About
What to watch, read, and experience, as curated by the Collé team.
▼ COLLECT
Versace Versus by Gianni Versace
The spring/summer 1997 Versace lookbook. The Bruce cover with the collage shoot. Elsewhere Jon Bon Jovi by Avedon, styling by Joe McKenna, hair by Guido. One of THE best.1997. Softcover.
▼ COLLECT
Linder Works 1976 - 2006
The 2006 first edition of the great Linder Sterling book Works 1976-2006. All of the most visceral of the collage works are here. It pops! Hardcover. In very good condition. 27 x 28 cm. 142 pages.
▼ LISTEN
VU by Velvet Underground
Recordings shelved by Verve in 1969 and left unreleased for nearly two decades. Raw, melodic, and quietly devastating — the band at their most approachable without losing any of the edge.
