{"id":18275,"date":"2018-09-03T14:50:44","date_gmt":"2018-09-03T14:50:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.orlan.eu\/works\/paintings\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T15:10:48","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T15:10:48","slug":"paintings","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.orlan.eu\/en\/works\/paintings\/","title":{"rendered":"Paints"},"content":{"rendered":"

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We Are Inconsolable<\/em>, 2025\u20132026<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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ORLAN is inconsolable in the face of the appalling state of the world today, which is reverting to obscurantism after the hope brought by the Enlightenment and the rule of law. She watches with horror as wars proliferate and extreme ideologies rise\u2014the far right, new forms of totalitarianism, masculinism, xenophobia… \u2014the resurgence of religious dogmas that divide people, collude with governments, fuel wars, and impose taboos on bodies and sexualities.  <\/p>\r\n

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The logic of domination is intensifying: the law of the strongest prevails, dictated by power, violence, and money, at the expense of all humanistic ideals.<\/p>\r\n

ORLAN is not content merely to observe. She believes that artists have a responsibility to react and take a stand: ORLAN does so with her body, her voice, and her image. Here, she screams, shouts, and cries\u2014not in resigned lament, but in active anger, political anger. This rage becomes artistic material, a driving force for creation, an act of resistance. <\/p>\r\n

ORLAN creates manifest self-portraits and breaks down the walls of ice between traditional artistic techniques\u2014painting\u2014and new technologies, including generative artificial intelligence reworked through digital photomontages. AI enhances painting; painting enhances AI. <\/p>\r\n

Her interventions in painting are sometimes visible, very visible, barely visible, invisible, or simply depicted\u2014all designed to elicit a keen visual focus on the work, in line with Robert Filliou\u2019s principle of equivalence: \u201cWell done, poorly done, not done.\u201d Her approach encourages the viewer to scrutinize the materiality of the work, as they must learn to distinguish between images generated by AI and those created by humans in order to perceive the sfumato\u2014the blurred boundary\u2014between painting and the representation of painting that ORLAN presents. <\/p>\r\n

At the same time, the viewer is confronted with the conflicts that exist simultaneously within the works and in the world. The viewer is no longer merely an \u201ceye\u201d; he or she transcends passivity in the face of contemporary strife and recognizes the urgency of individual and collective accountability. <\/div><\/div>Show More<\/a>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/tbody>\r\n<\/table>\r\n\r\nngg_shortcode_0_placeholder\r\n\r\n

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ORLAN: A Hybrid Approach to Geometric Problems <\/b><\/em>with AI & IAA<\/em>, 2025<\/b><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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ORLAN began her career in painting and sculpture.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

ORLAN decided to create geometric abstract works (1971\u20131974), which she painted with a spray gun on white laminate using masking techniques to produce extremely glossy pieces, lacquered like a mirror in which the audience is reflected.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

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In contrast to the artistic practices of her time, ORLAN wanted to create works without using a paintbrush\u2014a tool so common, so traditional, so often used by men to depict the body, movement, and material! <\/span><\/p>\r\n

It is geometric, industrial abstract painting\u2014without brushstrokes, without thick paint, without \u201cfine brushwork.\u201d There isn\u2019t the slightest trace of the body, yet it is still the viewer who completes the work! When the viewer walks by and observes the painting, they can simultaneously see themselves reflected in it. <\/span><\/p>\r\n

The body is there, as if frozen in place; the viewers are inside the artwork!<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The artwork becomes a mirror for them, physically incorporating the viewer’s presence into the work. <\/span><\/p>\r\n

In 2025, ORLAN reexamines painting within the context of today\u2019s creative practices and tools. She embraces digital technology to explore new ways of \u201cpainting.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\r\n

Generative AI allows him to break down the barriers between the old and the new, between traditional craftsmanship and new media. <\/span><\/p>\r\n

She presents these works on a reflective screen, drawing on her principle of incorporating the body of \u201cthe other.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\r\n

ORLAN, 2025.<\/div><\/div>Show More<\/a><\/span><\/p>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/tbody>\r\n<\/table>\r\n\r\nngg_shortcode_1_placeholder\r\n\r\n

The Plan<\/strong><\/em> of the Film, Painted Posters, <\/strong><\/em>1992<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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In 1989 and 1992, ORLAN received two grants from FIACRE and the Fonds d’Innovation Artistique et Culturel en Rh\u00f4ne-Alpes, to take up a residency in Chennai (then called Madras), India. For her second three-and-a-half-month trip, she was accompanied by Stephan Oriach, a director with whom ORLAN had collaborated in the past. <\/p>\r\n

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His trip to India was part of “le plan du film”, a series of works imagined from the reading of a quote by Jean-Luc Godard: “The only greatness of Jacques Becker’s Montparnasse 19 is that it is not only an upside-down film, but in a way the upside-down of cinema.” The concept was to take Godard literally, to create an upside-down film, starting with the poster and promotion with the trailer, letrilles, a soundtrack and a TV show to launch the feature. ORLAN enlisted the help of Publid\u00e9cor, an advertising agency specializing in 1950s painted movie posters, to create fourteen painted posters based on photos of the artist and recycled works. Her intention with these hand-painted acrylic posters on 3 m x 2 m canvases was to tell the story of her life in art. ORLAN made the posters using the names of her friends in the art world at the time, and one or two names of movie stars to make it seem as if the film existed. She also staged a fake press conference with director Bigas Luna and curator Lorand Hegyi for a Valencia biennial. She invited a number of journalists to talk about a film she had made that didn’t really exist. <\/div><\/div>Show More<\/a>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/tbody>\r\n<\/table>\r\nngg_shortcode_2_placeholder\r\n

Shivas<\/em>, 1991<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\nngg_shortcode_3_placeholder\r\n\r\n

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\r\n Skin<\/strong>\r\n<\/em> d’\u00e2ne<\/em>,<\/strong> sequin painting, 1990<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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This is a photographic series in which ORLAN reinterprets and incorporates elements from the story of *Peau d’\u00e2ne* into self-portraits. Peau d’\u00e2ne is a princess whose father asks her to marry him because he promised the queen\u2014her mother\u2014that he would marry only a woman more beautiful than she, and Peau d’\u00e2ne is the only woman of that caliber. His daughter escapes her father\u2019s desire by dressing in a donkey\u2019s skin.  <\/span><\/p>\r\n

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To escape the father\u2019s domain, one must shed one\u2019s skin. ORLAN therefore decides to experiment with new, multiple identities, in a humorous and detached manner. ORLAN advocates for shifting, mutating, nomadic identities, rather than fixed ones. <\/span><\/p>\r\n

In this series, ORLAN, each photo features a different outfit as well as a hat ranging from a kepi to a miter, including a baseball cap and a donkey’s head.<\/div><\/div>Show More<\/a>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/tbody>\r\n<\/table>\r\n\r\nngg_shortcode_4_placeholder\r\n\r\n

Paintings<\/i>, 1986<\/b><\/p>\r\n\r\nngg_shortcode_5_placeholder\r\n\r\n

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Geometric Problems<\/em>, 1973\u20131975<\/strong><\/p>\r\nngg_shortcode_6_placeholder\r\n

Abstract paintings<\/em>, 1965<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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Like many artists, ORLAN began her career as a painter. She didn’t want to create anything mawkish and she didn’t want to use a paintbrush, such a common, traditional tool! <\/span><\/p>\r\n

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ORLAN paints with a gun from a garage near her home. She’d convinced him to lend her a space to work in, away from the dust, outside opening hours. <\/span><\/p>\r\n

First she researched, sketched and drew, then composed abstract works that she spray-painted on white laminate using resist systems.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The paint seeped under the pieces of tape, but ORLAN persevered until the finish was perfect, creating works that are extremely glossy, lacquered like a mirror in which one can see one\u2019s reflection. It is geometric abstract painting\u2014almost industrial in style\u2014and there is not the slightest trace of a body, yet it is the viewer who creates the artwork! When the viewer walks by and observes the painting, they can simultaneously see themselves reflected in it. The body is there; the viewers are within the artwork! The artwork is their mirror. <\/span><\/div><\/div>Show More<\/a>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/tbody>\r\n<\/table>\r\n

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 <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We Are Inconsolable, 2025\u20132026 ORLAN is inconsolable in the face of the appalling state of the world today, which is reverting to obscurantism after the hope brought by the Enlightenment and the rule of law. She watches with horror as wars proliferate and extreme ideologies rise\u2014the far right, new forms of totalitarianism, masculinism, xenophobia… \u2014the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":18205,"menu_order":3,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-18275","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orlan.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/18275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orlan.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orlan.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orlan.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orlan.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18275"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.orlan.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/18275\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23919,"href":"https:\/\/www.orlan.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/18275\/revisions\/23919"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orlan.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/18205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orlan.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}