Young Gallery 75b Avenue Louise 1050 Bruxelles Belgique
The neutral backgrounds, especially the black ones, also contribute to the dematerialization of the place, which becomes abstract and thus makes the objects come out as apparitions. In this indefinite space, similar to that of a dream, the
seashells methodically gathered by Dautzenberg take on the appearance of a fantastical bestiary; and far from the walls of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences where they are preserved, one pictures discovering them rather in the
storeroom of a magus or in the mysterious half-light of a cabinet of curiosities, such as were in fashion in the 17th century; half-specimens of scientific interest, halfphantasmagoric creatures.
The life that haunts Berry’s shells – a « Life in the Folds », as Henri Michaux would put it –, is therefore additionally a fertile life: the roundness, the smooth flesh, the refinement of the surface patterns, all naturally evoke femininity. Here, every curve is exquisite. The mother-of-pearl, the softness of the shadows and the shimmering of the lights in the blur of the backgrounds, the shine of the shells, the sweet shades, the intricate twists, the delicately hemmed openings, seem to have been designed for a courtship dance.