Intrapsychic Secrets (2017)
Following on the methods of artist Iris Häussler, I helped uncover the history of the unknown (because fictitious) French painter Sophie La Rosière and her model/lover Florence (last name unknown). "Intrapsychic Secrets" uncovers more than one secret.
While in Paris in May 2016 for a symposium on Häussler’s Sophie La Rosière project, I discovered that Sophie had a secret sister. I immediately presented my results, "Sa soeur secrete," a few days later at the symposium.
Click here for "Sa soeur secrete"
A book Iris Häussler: The Sophie La Rosière Project has been published by the Art Gallery of York University. Click here for book.
Back cover blurb:
Since 2009, Iris Häussler has produced the complete oeuvre of unknown French painter Sophie la Rosière who died in 1948. In fact, Häussler has created an artistic persona—a heteronym—through which to channel this fictitious artist’s secrets while, at the same time, fabricating a biography for her and an elaborate backstory of a hidden erotic liaison that intersects, nonetheless, with real people, historical events, and actual artistic movements. The paintings, however, are merely a kernel within the larger shell of La Rosière’s life circumstances, which includes the recreation of her studio, its products and detritus. The book comprises the elements of a forensic investigation that tries to answer the questions, after the paintings’ discovery, of why these paintings were abandoned, why they were concealed by a layer of black encaustic, and, ultimately, what secrets they conceal. Following the spirit of the overall project, this book includes a catalogue raisonné of all of Sophie la Rosière’s 292 works, forensic evidence, expert analyses, and official reports.