LAURENCE LE CONSTANT

ÉMÉRENCIENNE
2019

Émérencienne was the name of Laurence Le Constant's great-grandmother.

Born into slavery and later emancipated, she married the man who had once owned her, defying the social conventions of her time. Her story was subsequently erased from family memory. Her own children, whose light skin allowed them to pass unnoticed, removed her from photographs and family narratives in order to preserve a long-held secret.

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With Émérencienne, Laurence Le Constant explores both personal history and collective memory. How do we reconcile ourselves with those who came before us? How do we heal silences, omissions and inherited wounds?

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Covered in recycled feathers on a carved beechwood skull, the work transforms the vanitas into a space of symbolic repair where memory, transmission and renewal converge.

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Private Collection, France.

Recycled feathers on beechwood.
50 × 40 × 60 cm.