CATEGORY: ART PORTRAITS

A woman in opulent robes sits backwards on a donkey, her face turned toward the baroque wallpaper of the abandoned palazzo she inhabits. A harlequin costume lies lifeless at the bottom of a staircase. A platinum-blonde woman, dressed in a black cap and suit, stares in profile, intently focused on a point in the distance.

When Frieke Janssens engages with artist James Ensor, she does so subtly and entirely in her own style. Her focus lies above all on the mood and the setting. The image of the lady on the donkey, to Frieke herself, is the one in which her style and Ensor’s most beautifully converge. The humor and the Unheimliche of the Ostend master meet the stateliness and theatricality that so strongly define the photographer’s oeuvre. And just as with an Ensor, you keep discovering new details in the image.

Yet Frieke’s body of work stands far apart from that of Ensor. Where his often large canvases are brimming with energy, hers exude calm. While he sought the crowd, the satire, and the absurd, the photographer chooses stillness, nuance, and the subtle wink. Extraversion versus introversion, abundance versus pure essence. Styling is Frieke’s middle name. Her harlequin stands stiff and upright—literally and figuratively—without a trace of emotion. The contrast with Ensor’s most famous harlequin, the one from Le désespoir de Pierrot, could hardly be greater: you can read the despair straight from his face.

This series seems to gently mark a new step in Frieke’s oeuvre. From her Smoking Kids to her Dianas and the floating figures from Lightness, a human presence has always been central. Striking portraits became her signature. Here, the setting and the props often tell the story. At times, the models disappear altogether, leaving only a white dress or a harlequin costume behind—an image of life after the making of the portrait.

(Sarah Theerlynck)