Making-of Portrait of a Fly, invasion,
Jean Larivière in his studio, 2015






Portrait of a Fly, invasion, sound teaser, 2015

In our collective imagination,
the world of insects oscillates between fascination and repulsion.

In Portrait of a Fly, the artist emphasises the ambiguity between the attraction of the microcosm
of insects and the universal fear
of an invasion of flies as described in the fourth plague of Egypt.
The artist focuses on the tension between the uniqueness of the infinitely small, and the multitude
of a destructive swarm of insects. In this diptych, Larivière plays on the inversion of these codes.
He took a black and white film photograph of a fly on a white background and transformed
its scale, so the viewer is confronted with a gigantic beast. The insect is combined
with a mysterious metal plaque guarded by an enigmatic fly, installed in a small transparent airlock. Behind the door,
the soundtrack reveals
an off-screen invasion.