Second Cycle? by Ingrid Berthon-Moine

This series of drawings follows the primary series, First Cycle, which Ingrid Berthon-Moine created during a period of grief. Flowers, a recurring symbol in her work, have long alluded to joy and erogenous zones. In recent pieces, however, they took on a more fragile and poignant quality. With Second Cycle?, the sequence evolves, offering a sense of renewal and reawakening. The series intertwines flowers, abstract fruits, and anamorphic body parts, suggesting movement imbued with a vibrant, dancing energy. This energy seems to herald more exuberant times, scattering seeds of vitality and hope. Yet, the drawings also evoke moments of stillness—of flottement, a need to pause and catch one’s breath. Perhaps this is why each stem in the compositions remains firmly anchored at the base, alluding to an enduring need for grounding in a world rife with challenges to human existence, where subjectivities, hierarchies, and anatomies are constantly being subverted.

Ingrid Berthon-Moine (Frane) lives and works in London. Her artistic practice, spanning sculpture, drawing, and video, explores the physical and cultural dimensions of the human body. Drawing inspiration from diverse sources such as language, psychoanalysis, and feminism, Berthon-Moine weaves personal narratives into her work, challenging conventional understandings of human experiences like sexuality, illness, and death. Rooted in the experience of inhabiting a female body, Berthon-Moine disrupts idealised femininity, proposing a new language for female subjectivity. Combining the strange and the familiar, her sculptures defy conventional gender binaries with anthropomorphic forms, immersing viewers in a realm of ambiguity and disquieting sexuality. Her visceral drawings and sculptures also capture the rhythm of life in constant flux, exploring the evolving nature of human identity. By breaking down barriers between self and others, male and female, Berthon-Moine invites us to embrace ambiguity and the blurring of boundaries. In a moment where the modern Western vision of the human being is being challenged, Berthon Moine’s works explore the representation of bodies and their metamorphoses. Her hybrid, manifold subjects signal new subjectivities, hierarchies and anatomies.

Berthon-Moine completed her MA in Fine Art at Goldsmiths University, London, UK, in 2017 and her MA in Photography at the LCC, London, UK, in 2019. She is the recipient of Hogchester Arts Residency, 2024; Unit 1 Gallery Radical Residency VIII, 2024; a-n Artists Bursaries, 2023; the Jerwood 1:1 Fund, 2022; the London Bronze Casting fellowship 2022; and the Barbican Art Trust residency, 2019.

Solo exhibitions: It’s Getting Clawser, Fitzrovia Gallery, London, UK (2022); You Tear Us, Kelder Project, London, UK, (2018). Selected group exhibitions: Gate of Horns: Myths of Resistance, Symbols of Defiance, Carl Freedman Gallery, UK, (2025), Mirror of Mysteries: Women Artists and the Surreal Legacy, La Boulangerie, Paris, FR, (2024); Hypha Studios, London, UK, (2024); Unit Gallery, London, UK, (2023); TJ Boulting, London, UK, (2022); Open Mic selected by Abbas Zahedi, Frieze Art Fair, London, UK, (2022); 55SP, Sao Paolo, Brazil, (2022); Drawing Room, London, UK, (2021); Galerie Paris-B, Paris, France, (2021); Stadtmuseum München, Munich, Germany, (2019).