Artistic Practice

In parallel with her academic work, Elodie Silberstein (she/her) develops sensitive, collective, and restorative modes of enquiry about the representations of femininity. She creates performative installations and participatory events which combine storytelling and mise en scène. Her approach favors understated and raw material – such as cardboard and discarded materials – to stage delicate creations and poetic worlds. Prior to her PhD (2015-2018) in the Department of Media, Film and Journalism at Monash University (Naarm, Australia), Elodie completed a Master of Fine Arts at the University Paul-Valery (Montpellier, France). She has exhibited internationally (Australia, Japan, France, UK, and Spain), and was previously represented by Mori Gallery (Sydney, Australia). Her work has been regularly featured in the media.

Elodie is currently investigating the image of French rural femininity. She is interested in the ways provincial women – like racialised women – have historically been excluded from the collective imaginary by La Parisienne: an icon of seduction, modernity, and metropolitan femininity. Her most recent site-specific installation analyses the feminisation of nature in the figure of the fairy (Phalène Arts Pluriels  –  Fées et Gestes – Lignières, France – June 2023). During her residency, Elodie staged three shrouds floating in the attic of a historical house. These memorial garments alluded to a range of forgotten fairies – rural fairies lost when appropriated by Parisienne writers in the court culture of the late 17th century, and later by male writers such as Charles Perrault, but also fairies of our own childhood. One key feature of the project was the creation by the public of offerings made of clay and natural elements from the garden – flowers, branches, seeds, roots for a sensual engagement with the earth. These offerings were then hung within the installation. This syncretic scenography acted as a collective protection ritual. Fetishes reminiscent of Elodie’s childhood in Cameroon met the animism of rural paganism to highlight commonalities across borders and the importance of protecting nature.