Anabelle

Condé

Anabelle Condé finds her muse in the botanical imagery of the late 20th century. By deftly employing a technique of image superimposition, Condé creates an effect of perceptual blending, in which the viewer's mind is provoked to synthesize the contrasting elements into a unified whole.

What inspires me is the beauty of images, and the power of imagination. Collage is the simplicity of the encounter between two images, and the difficulty of reproducing one. Recreate volumes, organic shapes, or more straight. It’s all about composition. From a more personal point of view, collage is an immersive experience and self-care. I only do paper collage, with vintage images chosen from magazines (before 1980). This is what inspires me the most. The colors, the black and white, the texture, the thickness, the smell. See the cutout, the strata of paper, like lace. A typical creative moment is a lot of magazines and music in my ears.

Anabelle Condé

I studied fashion design at the National School of Visual Arts in La Cambre (Brussels). Collage has always accompanied me in my research of volume. I wasn’t good at drawing, so it was my method/manner to create silhouettes. My first memory related to collage is associated to the work of Jacques Villeglé. I remember during my first art studies in France to have torn in the street a superposition of posters, the accumulation of paper was so heavy that it took off from the wall. I had made a dress for an exercise in school. Then my approach to collage changed, I discovered the brilliant work of John Stezaker, and that’s all I love: photography and poetry.

Anabelle Condé

Anabelle Condé was born in 1986 in France. She is currently based in Brussels, Belgium.

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