Et j'ai failli pleurer, Jules Dufresne
A grid of 20 paper sheets pinned to a wall, consisting of four rows with six pieces in each row. The artworks are mainly monochromatic sketches of faces, some with in blue and red ink. Mixed among the self-portraits are textual elements, created with a typewriter, including some with visible alterations such as smudges or marks. The portraits vary in style, with some showing detailed facial features while others are more abstract.
Title: Et j'ai failli pleurer
Artist: Jules Dufresne
Date: 2025
Medium/Materials: Monotype
Dimensions: 24 prints, 22.23 cm x 24.13 cm each
Form/Genre: Print
Key Terms/Subject/Tags: Neurodivergence; Self-portrait; Mark-making
Artist Statement:
Through autoethnographic exploration, Jules Dufresne’s work aims to study the influence of new technologies on our daily lives. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, they use various media such as analog photography, printmaking, ceramics, and poetry. Their process is cumulative and autoethnographic. Dufresne documents everything. From childhood, keeping a diary and photographing their surroundings helped them navigate the awkwardness of growing up autistic with ADHD. They constantly return to their archives. They open their computer, their boxes of objects, their old journals, and look at what they've left lying around: drawings, texts, recordings, photos, files. These archives accumulate until they create an installation, a space.
In their daily life and in their work, Dufresne imposes upon themself the slow rhythm of time-consuming technologies: typewriters, slide projectors, film photography. The rhythm of these machines compels them to slow down, to be present. Having struggled with social media addiction, they seek to understand how our everyday algorithmic environments shape our behaviour, and to imagine ways of slowing down, resisting, and inhabiting the world differently.
Cultural Context / Story Behind the Work:
The work explores the relationship that neurodivergent people have with digital media through an autoethnographic lens. It recounts a year of trying to deal with internet and cellphone overuse. Created throughout an entire week —sixty hours— of being present in the gallery space.
Rights for this Image:
This digital image is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0. You are free to share it for non-commercial purposes, as long as you credit the artist.
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