JULIEN BONET - Elizabeth

Technique: Promptography on Hahnemühle Fine Art paper
Size: 50 x 40 cm
Edition: 3 + 1 AP
Year: 2023

Signed, dated and edition numbered by the artist on a separate label.

Elizabeth

A figure, towering like a living relic, almost disappears in ornament and splendor. Golden medallions, pocket watches, and emblems of nobility hang like heavy fruit from a green robe that resembles a mythical tree more than a royal gown. Only the purple legs, fragile and almost ironic, betray the humanity beneath the weight of the symbol.

In the artist's words: "Disguised as a royal figure, she is the unattainable figure you can laugh at for a day."

Elizabeth enacts the ambivalence of the monarchy—between veneration and parody, sacredness and spectacle. The figure stands unattainable, and it is precisely this distance that makes her a projection surface: for desire and ridicule, for nostalgia and criticism. She is a queen without an empire, a statue in a space that appears as magnificent as it is empty.

In the context of the series "Masquerades," Elizabeth becomes an allegory for images of power that have persisted for centuries, even when their substance has long since faded. What remains is the ritual: coronations, insignia, gestures—signs that tell us more about us than about those who wear them.

Part of the ongoing series Masquerades – contemporary myths between fear, ritual and collective memory.