Annouchka Brochet. Miss Vulnerable

Erarta Galleries Zurich is pleased to present ‘Miss Vulnerable’ by renowned artist Annouchka Brochet. Brochet brings to Zurich key works from her acclaimed series’ Vulnerable, Ecstasy and Star Lips as well as some of her newest paintings.

In Russian, krasnit is used to reference both paint and make-up (krasnitia). For Brochet, these two materials are one in the same and applied similarly by the artist. Her work explores the narcissistic idealism in which women become slaves to their own idealized images. We conform to a culture of perfectionism, where sex sells and beauty is seemingly the highest virtue a woman can posses. Through her work, Brochet stoically continues to battle with the inflicted standards of female seductiveness.

The exhibited works do not tell a story of superficial beauty, but of real, living femininity. Beauty is fleeting and fluid as paint. As it is applied and flows, mixes, it eventually shows the true and elusive meaning of beauty. Vulnerable (2010-2014), focuses on the power of vulnerability in a woman’s life. The artist repositions vulnerability within a contemporary context wherein inherent weakness does not mean giving up the responsibility of acting. Brochet’s choice to depict only the faces of women represses the projection of sexual fantasies, which could distract viewers from the true meaning of intimate vulnerability. It is a paradoxical vulnerability difficult to grasp in concepts and words, but one that is easily distinguishable from her work.

With an intimate focus on famous lips, the series Star Lips (2009-2013) is dedicated to the most “telling” part of the body. The contemporary icons of stage and screen have become instantly recognisable across cultures and borders, the shape of their lips becoming a focal point for admiration and scrutiny. As people scrutinize this intimate part of the body, their lips develop a new kind of identity and role, acquiring value.

Brochet’s career is representative of the Russian art scene after perestroika. Far from the concerns of many artists working in Moscow conceptualism, she took a critical view of the new world of consumerism whilst maintaining a traditional means of expression. Brochet references her cultural upbringing by constantly referring to the fundamental essence of Russian art, that of the ‘icon’.

During the past decade Annouchka Brochet has participated in some of the most important contemporary art exhibitions in Russia as well as showing her work internationally. She is represented in the collection of the Moscow Museum of Modern Art, the Moscow Museum of Photography and Multimedia art and private collections worldwide.