Jean-François Texier's 'Site Ginko' Explores Ambiguity and Performance

Jean-François Texier's exhibition 'Site Ginko' took place in Troyes and Reims, France, from August to January 2002-2003. The artist uses clothing and accessories as signals of ambiguity, blending the real and the fake, the grotesque and the marvelous. He incorporates family traditions of knitting, sewing, and embroidery into works that range from shell necklaces on fishing line to knitted black gloves and two-piece outfits. His photographs, presented inside locker doors, are dedicated to boxers Al Brown (also known as 'La libellule noire' and lover of Cocteau) and Carlos Monzon ('El Macho'), exploring opposing categories such as direct and allusive, brutal and fragile. Texier himself performs as various characters, including a milk-strawberry girl, a diaphanous androgyne, a corrosive copy of Josephine Baker, or an equivocal boxer. The exhibition was held at Le Collège/Frac Champagne-Ardenne, which planned a new installation from January 24 to March 23, 2003.