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Marilou Bal (b.1990) is a French painter based in Geneva, CH. She graduated from a MFA at the HEAD art school in Geneva in 2018. She had shows in Paris, Marseille, Brussels, New-York, Oslo, Zürich, Basel, Lausanne. She was finalist at the Swiss Art Awards 2023 in Basel and won the Art award at Centre d’Art Contemporain Geneva in 2022.
Portrait © Joaquim Sommer
Hi Marilou! It’s a pleasure to sit down with you! I’m curious, growing up what kind of kid were you? What did you enjoy doing, and how did you spend your time?
I was born in France but I grew up in New Haven, CT, until I was 5. My mom would spy on me mumbling in ‘frenglish’ while playing. I was mischievous, I had a phase when my thing was to stir ‘soup’ in a bucket the size of me, adding ingredients like my mom’s personal things. Also random but, I’ve been told that when asked how old I was one day I answered ‘seven o-clock’, I think I wasn’t so interested in making sense or what was going on around me until much later. But starting at an early age my mom would place big pieces of paper on the floor for me to paint on and around 3 or so she got me an easel. She kept an archive of my toddler artworks.
Alright, so when did you start to paint, and when did you start taking being an artist seriously?
So since childhood I never picked it up again until 2018, towards the end of my art studies. It was a last minute shift after previously being more into sculpture but it made a lot of sense back then, it was deeply satisfying. I was shy about it at the time and wouldn’t expose myself to be scrutinized in the school studios, I’d explore oil painting in my bedroom on tiny bits of paper or pieces of denim. I was lucky enough to be invited to participate in shows right after school which helped me build my confidence. I guess selling my first paintings is when I started to feel legit in a way.
Alright Marilou, with these next series of questions, I will try to delve into your work as best as possible… So, your work often revisits themes from adolescence, like nightlife and social gatherings. What draws you to these themes, and how do they resonate with you on a personal level?
If I’m digging this type of images as source material for my paintings – from the intoxicated girl spectrum – it’s because I relate to it as it triggers teenage recollection. One entry to my work is that I had a history of blackouts during parties and I used to find these gaps in memory eerie af. As references I use found images depicting anonymous girls partying that I relate to as it reminds me of myself, lived experiences and personal anecdotes. Such as flashed Nokia pictures of pulled-down pair of jeans during parties.
I would stumble upon this type of picture the day after a certain party, posted on someone’s blog and I’d recognize the color of my thong. Those memories of teenage humiliation mixed with some sort of kink are a motif in my work. One time I tripped on the edge of my pants during a school game and the whole school got to see my turquoise thong and it led to comments on msn messenger’s chat. I am still trying to deconstruct how shame and sexuality were intertwined for me and for girls of my generation but also in general.
And the various scenes in your work, how do you come up with them? What’s the story behind them?
Every painting has a bit of a story behind it. For example, I titled one of my paintings ‘Unfriended’ after a slasher-revenge movie from 2014 that emphasizes on cyber-bullying and paranormal. The film is shot from a laptop screen and revolves around a Skype school friend’s group call, in the aftermath of their bestie committing suicide over a humiliating video posted on facebook of her passed out drunk. For this work I wanted to address the feeling of anxiety linked to the fact that whatever is put online is there forever.
How does pop culture influence your art, and are there specific pop culture moments or icons that have shaped your work?
Until now, my work has been very much influenced by aspects of the American culture, as in tv shows, celebrities, fraternity-sorority parties, nightlife-club photography, white trash culture…either personally witnessed/experienced as a teen or studied through series, trends etc. I’ve been interested in the generic feeling of common behaviors and social environment unique to each generation.
In the studio I sometimes find my titles while listening to random music, it was the case with a portrait I made of Paris Hilton which I titled ‘The best things in life are free‘ from a verse of Uffie’s song ‘Sadmoney’. I thought it embodied all the contradictions about Paris being a free of charge influencer and an heiress as well as the contradictions about the subjects of my paintings and my own values as a person. The gap between most of my teenage references and what actually defines me today is starting to show.
There’s a strong sense of nostalgia in your pieces. Tell me about that, and would you consider yourself a nostalgic person?
I’m pretty nostalgic, invoking the past is a common thing with my bestie who saw me going through a number of eras. I wouldn’t go backwards though, if the past brings back soothing childhood memories it also brings back young adult trauma. What I actually depict is probably portraying my darkest time. I think a fear of mine would be to be stuck back in such a timeline, I’m more of the present moment type and excited for what’s next. But it’s true, my taste, style, what I listen to is very nostalgic. But it goes beyond the early aughts or what I’ve known, for the past two years I’ve been obsessed with the 70’s somehow.
Your work features a bold use of color and mainstream iconography. What do you look for when choosing your next motif to paint?
I’m after poor resolution images that has a certain pictoriality to it already. In the first phase of digging, I usually can spot already the details I’m going to take the most pleasure from painting. For the subject in itself it’s more versatile, but I love looking for slightly sweaty girls faces that catches the light and with specific features and expressions.
Can you also tell me about your use of symbolism?
I find interest in the notion of the double as the reflection of the self, which can be found in the twin or best friend figure. I often use motifs such as mirrors, selfies, social mimesis to introduce an eerie and paranormal sensation.
I also like to use titles as a twist to bring to seemingly pop, mainstream or trivial settings a more meta significance, like the painting depicting two girls kissing in a potential club that I titled ‘Eternal spark of the universe’. It raises the potential vibration of the painting.
How do you approach color?
The use of psychedelics in the past years had an effect on my color palette, I tend to enjoy vibrant colors more. I mix colors on the palette a lot less but use layers of glaze to render depth, I want the optical mix of tones to happen directly in the eye. I am into impressionism and painters like the Nabis who were influenced by the introduction of photography and I can find commonalities between their touch and use of broken colors with the digital, dots per inches and rgb. Personally I find interesting to link classic painterly technics with the new sets of affect related to our time.
It’s interesting that you mention psychedelics, can you tell me more about that?
My first real encounter with it was when I was introduced to ayahuasca by a Columbian friend years ago and it has been the hardest and most beautiful thing I ever did. Later I tried mushrooms, it took time to find the right setting. In my case, it’s best alone in bed on a rainy day and no plans later. If it’s sunny outside, it’s too bright and it gives me fomo. It’s a ritual I do if I’m going through a tough moment and need guidance or if I just need to reconnect to the magical aspect. For me the trip is mostly inwards, with recurring symbols such as animals, seeds, thorns, eggs, colors…
In a parallel universe who would you be? and what would you be doing?
I’d be a hot ageless lady with silver hair, living near a water spring, obsessed with plants, tantra, painting her ceilings with frescos and building folk decorative furniture for her house.
What qualities do you find most important in the people you choose to spend time with?
Along with the obvious I’d say relaxed, stimulating, cuddly, not afraid to go deep, into some very specific aesthetic that would intrigue me, that gets me and who also likes to express love with small special attentions like food or gifts.
Anybody you look up to?
There are so many…A few years ago I participated in a show in New York curated by Catherine Mulligan and didn’t go but I have been looking forward to meeting her in person some day. Her oil paintings are featuring y2k hyper-feminine zombified girls and vacant buildings or mansions straight out of dystopian reality shows. A year ago I got to meet Michelle Uckotter, also NY based, who’s work I also look up to a lot. Her oil pastel paintings are depicting school-girls in chaotic motel rooms or attics, symbolizing eerie-haunted spaces. Two years ago I was introduced to Kelsey Isaacs who’s work I also love, she works on series of oil painting compositions arranging close-ups of girly shinny, translucent decorative materials lit by handheld flashlights.
Among other female NY painters I am enthusiastic about but never met in person there is Marie Connor, who’s oil painting series are featuring prepubescent golem e-girls and Hannah Taurins who has a drawing-painting practice. Like most of these artists she works from reference, her main interest being fashion photography. I can also think of Kira Scerbin, based in Chicago. I think we share a taste for psychedelic girl figuration, spiraling down the rabbit hole. Also more recently I’ve been following the work of Alexandra Metcalf based in Berlin. I am really into her taste for the 60s-70s female decorative folk and retro aesthetic.
How would you describe a perfect day?
The perfect day would start with coffee, a breakfast specially prepared for me, love, stretching, meeting with friends at the flea market, going for a naked swim in the river down the street on a winter sunny day, painting at the studio while listening on repeat to the last song-finds of the week, going to the sauna-hammam by the lake on Tuesday women’s day, a long oxytocin cuddle in bed back home, going to bed early and exhausted.
Alright Marilou, I always ask these two questions at the end of an interview. The first is. What’s your favorite movie(s) and why?
Based on the number of times I’ve seen it, I’d say Ringu (1998). It terrified me as a teen, I like the editing, the sound, the small budget that used to make my imagination go wild. I also remember reading the Ring books on the beach in summer when I was 12 and being filled with terror. I like horror, specially with dark femininity as a tool like revenge movies addressing pain, trauma and reparation, it can be fertile and so cathartic.
Warm Water Under a Red Bridge (2001) comes to mind also, it’s more of a romantic movie, I saw it only once a couple years ago but it felt so needed as it’s addressing female sexuality and healing in a way that I would relate to.
The second is. What song(s) are you currently listening to the most right now?
I discovered recently Linda Perhacs and the album Parallelograms (1970) which I listen to a lot while painting.