Project Room: You Are Not Alone: Camille Cottier

Camille Cottier’s artistic journey began during her degree studies, where she focused on the physical limits of the human body. Through self-portraiture, she experimented with photography, video, and drawing, using her own face as a medium to explore distortion. This theme of distortion extended beyond herself, as she also worked with actors to capture exaggerated stage expressions, which she transformed into large, drawn portraits. These early explorations influenced her later work, where explorations of physicality and abstraction continue.

Cottier’s series ‘Les Bonhommes’, started the year after she graduated, features anthropomorphic figures with distorted, exaggerated forms. Although their limbs stretch and tangle, their faces remain almost identical, each with a direct and often accusatory stare. These figures raise questions of belonging, intimacy, and community, themes that Cottier continues to explore in her new exhibition. While the characters in ‘Les Bonhommes’ are often seen standing, those in ‘You Are Not Alone’ are depicted in serenity and torpor.

This shift in tone could be linked to Cottier’s personal experiences during her residency in Naxos, as she was pregnant at the time (and has since welcomed her first child.)  Many of the figures in this new series reflect that intimate connection, with scenes of cuddling, caresses, and sleeping faces. Her signature distortion is still there, but there’s a new warmth in the interactions between characters. The bright colour palette emphasises these entangled relationships, while the figures themselves take up the space between reality and the ethereal.

In her current practice, Cottier employs acrylic paint on canvas, layering thin glazes to create a soft, delicate application of pigment. This method gives her scenes an almost ephemeral quality, where figures seem to float between reality and dream, emphasising the gentle stillness of her works.

‘You Are Not Alone’ invites viewers to engage with ideas of rest, connection, and shared experience, offering an intimate window into her world.