Carine & Élisabeth Krecké – Photographies fictives
Looking at the pictures by Carine and Élisabeth Krecké, one has the impression of recognising the faces of movie or music stars (Isabelle Adjani, Madonna, Johnny Depp etc.). Most of the time, however, they are but mere fictitious products emerged from the artists' imagination. After all, is it not the fate of "real" stars to appear and to seem? And what media can create illusion better than photography and cinema?The somewhat wild-eyed faces depicted by Carine and Élisabeth Krecké end up resembling what they seem, as Michel Guérin puts it.
The represented subjects are troubling just as much as the employed technique. The photographic-like images are in fact the result of almost endlessly computer-processed and retouched drawings of fictitious characters initially drawn by the artists. What determines the processing's end is the final degree of resemblance with a black and white photographic image. Thanks to infography, the artists have succeeded in bestowing on the drawing the illusion of a (photographic) reality that does not exist. The impression of reality originates from that fascinating simulation. If one is persuaded that photography "imitates" reality better than any other media, drawing, by way of infography, takes up a new, definitely contemporary dimension in Carine and Élisabeth Krecké's works.Carine and Élisabeth Krecké are twin sisters of Luxemburgish nationality. They hold a doctor's degree in economics and live in Aix-en-Provence. Art is as much part of their activities as sciences. In recent projects they reflected on the position of art as compared to that of sciences. What is the role of art in the face of an increasingly globalising economy and an ever more elaborate development of sciences?
