Marion Delarue: Nature and Artifice

Curvaceous compositions in gray and glistening jet black, the neckpieces of Parisian artist Marion Delarue’s “Cracheh” series conjure historical allusions through visual analogy and the deliberate juxtaposition of natural and synthetic materials. Inspired by the coiffures of the Joseon dynasty in Korea, which enhanced a woman’s own tresses with the addition of thick, exuberantly coiled plaits of human hair, the “Cracheh” neckpieces probe the boundaries of excess, where style threatens practicality, and ornament aspires to dominate the body that supports it.