TROMPE L'ŒIL

Trompe-l’œil is a pictorial genre designed to create confusion—an illusion of reality that is not. My «paintings» mimic the thick texture of oil paint, yet they are nothing but pixels. But what does authenticity matter in a virtual world? Here, everything is made of pixels. And the same is true in the world of humans. What is a tree if it is printed on a sheet of paper? What is a promise if it is never kept? What is a declaration of love in a world devoid of love? What is life to someone who no longer tastes its original essence?

So it is with these four paintings. Our luminous cities, built of polished concrete and transparent glass in metallic hues, are infested with rats. The family unit, so cherished by these new old extreme leaders, is the elementary brick of our consumerist democracy, where everyone lives alone in their dream of elsewhere. And as a counterpoint, our social networks, haunted by the ghosts of ourselves—small red balloons tethered to cables. And then, the woman. Her trompe-l’œil freedom conceals a womb that was never truly hers, as if we were co-owners of our own bodies.

Who still cares about truth today? Many, and ever fewer, hide it beneath their coats, no longer daring to cultivate or share it. In their place, the worst dregs of humanity spew their lies and turn them into trompe-l’œil.

_ Milena Carbone