GABRIELLE VINCENT

GABRIELLE VINCENT ERNEST AND CELESTINE Ernest et Célestine chez le photographe, Éditions Duculot 1982 Mélancolie, original illustration. Watercolor on paper 25 × 22.7 cm (9.84 × 8.94 in.) A myriad of emotions for Célestine, who has just discovered what was hidden in Ernest's locked drawer: photos of life before, life before her. Curiosity, astonishment, sadness, incomprehension, and the shock of discovering this gallery of photos of bears of all ages, and even of a white mouse Ernest had never told her about. Not one photo of her in all these precious souvenirs; another mouse in her place, the exact opposite of her, since she's white. The space is invaded by these monochrome images that obliterate everything about her world and her current happiness; Célestine is alone with these souvenir photos that don't belong to her and that she doesn't know how to appropriate. She turns around them, alternately lying down, sitting up and standing, seemingly looking for a way to tame them; in the end, there's no way out other than to leave the room and go see Ernest. In the end, she packs it all in, determined to hold Ernest to account.