

Oil, acrylic on linen 49cm x 39cm (unframed)
Fashion magazine imagery in contrast with delicious summer dessert. Jess Burgess challenges the notion of beauty culture.
‘A Mille-fuille’ combines the previously disassociated images of the female figure, the bright blue sky and other abstracted structures. Influences from Alex Katz and Brian Calvin’s figurative works are seen here together with the personal experiences and emotions that come with the cooling of summer. Burgess also draws much inspiration from the world of fashion as she uses snapshots of designer pieces from social media, and makes the experience of shopping for them more attainable with the act of applying paint to canvas. While the edges of each image frames its adjacent neighbor, it emphasizes the painting’s construction. And while the hidden gaze of the woman strengthens this structure, the gaze of the viewer, peeping into the structure, deconstructs it all over again.