GISELE

GISELE

Ildze Balcere, 2010
63 × 63 cm
Embroidery

Gisele is a portrait built around one of the most powerful forms of human communication — the gaze.

The face emerges gradually from darkness, while the eyes hold the viewer with an intensity that is difficult to escape. There is beauty in the portrait, but Balcere does not allow that beauty to become passive. The longer we look, the more the expression seems to shift between distance and intimacy, strength and vulnerability, invitation and resistance.

The artist describes this duality through an unexpected metaphor:

“Her endlessly captivating gaze feels like a swarm of bees — they sting you from time to time, yet moments later they generously offer honey, confessing their love.”

That tension between the sting and the honey becomes the emotional centre of the work.

Created entirely in embroidery, Gisele also reveals an important characteristic of Balcere’s practice: an image that appears almost photographic from a distance is constructed through an exceptionally slow and physical process.

Thread becomes light. Individual stitches become shadows. Gradually, an embroidered surface becomes a human presence.

The work asks the viewer to move between distance and proximity. From afar, we encounter a portrait. Up close, the illusion dissolves and the extraordinary materiality of the work becomes visible — thousands of decisions, gestures and traces of time held within thread.

Gisele is not simply a portrait of a woman.

It is a portrait of the moment when looking becomes an encounter.

A unique work.

Available through L’atelier d’Art Trence.
For acquisition, additional details or a private presentation, please contact the gallery.