About joëlle

Visual artist from Mauritius with a passion for teaching and exploration of new techniques and materials in her artistic creations.

My Work

Portfolio

Joëlle Rosalie

Joelle Rosalie is a highly accomplished painter and artist based in the picturesque island nation of Mauritius. With a profound passion for artistic expression.

Art influences society by changing opinions, instilling values and translating experiences across space and time. Research has shown that art affects the fundamental sense of self. How far the artists’ life experiences change their art? We know that some events they encounter may serve as powerful catalysts for new creative frontiers and spiritual transformation. No one really lives in a vacuum, so the experiences she lives through are necessarily part of whatever she creates.

It is quite usual in our multicultural island Mauritius to identify people only by their ethnicity or religion. These categorizations grounded on the physical features and inherited associations leaves no space to the individual to express his true personality and qualities. The identity of an individual cannot be defined by mere classifications. How does an individual defines herself if she does not identify herself with all these categories imposed by society? The identity is very complex it involves the totality of social experiences acquired from the family background, neighborhood, profession, but also the social values obtained from the cultural background, the religious beliefs, race and language.

In my opinion every person has the right to claim who they want to be, I personally consider myself as a being made up of links. Links derived from my culture, religion, people I came across at some time in my life, my profession, my gender my family background and my values. These links are twisted, intertwined and weaved together to make me who I am.

In my artistic practice, I use rather simple and common craft techniques, such as quilting, weaving combined with printmaking which I adapt without applying all the strict rules because all depends on the materials used in direct connection with the textile, and by trying to combine techniques and materials. This way of proceeding can give the feeling that the work resides in a bricolage, but yet in a skillful way. In all of these achievements, it is a matter of proceeding little by little, piece by piece, by repeating gestures specific to the artisanal techniques used. I choose to perform this repetitive gesture, to carry out fairly significant work, which therefore requires patience, long, daily work; and lead me to reflect on the temporality of my creation. In craft activity head, heart and hands are brought into a particular relationship with each other.

My choice for printmaking techniques such as Collagraphy is explained because it allows the combination of several types of textiles or string, plastic and other materials together with traditional plates thus resulting in artworks which are unique and unexpected. Whereas the option for block printing (linocut and woodcut), is because it is loaded with symbolism due to the effort and repeated physical gestures that are involved while engraving an image on a matrix but also because a print represents something which is permanent, once done it cannot be modified. We as human beings are imprinted with values and inheritances that we have obtained from our past and we grow and progress with them.