In the exhibition I am Frankie, and you still love me, Shana de Villiers invites the audience into the bedroom of Frankie, a creature in constant transformation, a character some would call a monster. Frankie is both fragment and whole; a composite figure of you and me. Despite all the ways we differ from one another, we all carry shame. Through this intimate and theatrical installation, de Villiers examines how the processes by which the other, and oneself, are made into a «monster» produce internalized shame, and how this shame simultaneously becomes part of the very creation of the monstrous. In I am Frankie, and you still love me, domestic spaces and visual symbolic worlds become a reparative language, in which shame is alchemized into composite forms of belonging and being.
Scattered costume fragments symbolize the shedding of fixed identities: a long, white dress, with collages of printed images of monsters drawn from meme culture and fur-like textures, hangs from the ceiling. Nearby lies a pair of trousers with a rat tail, tossed on the floor as if just taken off. These elements point toward the manifold and shifting forms of identity, drawing inspiration from the literary universe of the author Kathy Acker, in which the characters slide ceaselessly between roles as girls, pirates, sailors, and knights. Other soft sculptural works, including stuffed animals and personal notes, form part of a scenography of rest and care that stands in contrast to the latent violence inherent in the act of making someone into a «monster».
At the entrance to the exhibition, Ladybug, a character inspired by the ladybird — an insect associated in many cultures with protection, luck, and good omens — stands guard. The character’s presence suggests friendship as a refuge from the shame attached to the monstrous, while a continuous, repeating soundscape offers glimpses into Frankie’s dreams and fears. This auditory element functions as a surrogate body, carrying the protagonist’s dreams and fragmented language through the exhibition space.
Through a collage-based working method, Shana continually draws on her own «monster archive»: an ever-growing collection of clippings, images, and memes taken from both historical and digital contexts. The archive holds everything from the creatures in Hieronymus Bosch’s paintings to a Teletubby with an aging face, hyper-muscular bodybuilders, and mutated sea creatures. This visual material forms the basis for patchworks, sculptures, wearable objects, and performative works that examine and challenge normative structures. Like a seamstress, Shana works with found textiles, images, and text fragments, making visible the lines of connection between what is perceived as normal and what is defined as monstrous.
Shana de Villiers (b. 2000, St. Maarten) (they/them) is a South African artist based in The Hague, Netherlands. Their practice moves between the performative, the visual, and the literary, exploring different readings of the monstrous. Magical, colorful characters and fragmented narratives that mirror societal fears and (post)colonial complications are characteristic features of their work. Through a collage-like working method, they bring together craft, theory, and mythologies of the internet age into sculptures, wearable works, texts, and immersive theatrical installations. De Villiers has previously exhibited at, among others, TUR (LATV), Das Leben am Haverkamp (NL), Art Rotterdam (NL), Heden Gallery (NL), Quartair (NL), and Omsland (NL).