« PROJET E.DOLL » By SOFTTWIX
Started in early 2014, the E.Doll Project unfolds through urban installations. My photos—faces of women on black backgrounds, in XXL format—are pasted on city walls, abandoned buildings, or active construction sites. I look for the perfect interaction between the site and the E.Doll I’ve created, to reveal the full intensity of her gaze. I wanted to create that face-to-face moment… “My E.Dolls are unsettling; they challenge, confront, provoke. Everyone is free to project their own story onto them…”
E.Dolls are liberated women. They are all beautiful, but their faces carry the traces of their lives. Each one tells a story—her story: the violence of existence, the weight of upbringing, the madness of men, the erosion of time.
They are beautiful, but behind or through this perfect, sculptural beauty, a deeply human wound is revealed. Are they fantastical mutants—or, on the contrary, profoundly and painfully women? The modern woman is expected to juggle a successful career and private life. This image of womanhood, idealized by Western society through magazines and advertising, is omnipresent.
To be one of them means reconciling the traditional role of housewife with that of an emancipated woman. A woman who flawlessly balances a fulfilling career, raising children, an immaculate home, a sexy yet sophisticated look, close friendships, and of course, a fabulous love life… But being a superwoman isn’t enough. She must also be beautiful, slim, ageless, wrinkle-free, and effortlessly radiant…
Most women live—consciously or unconsciously—trapped in the gaze and approval of others… In this frantic race for external validation, they lose themselves, wear down, tear apart, fade away…
The Uncanny Face-to-Face of Softtwix
Written by Codex Urbanus, November 2023
Sometimes, beauty moves us before we even grasp the technical feat it represents. This is true of the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, that fragile cage of 13th-century stained glass, whose dazzling windows overwhelm us long before we realize they alone support the immense Gothic stone ceiling. That, perhaps, is the highest calling of technique—when it disappears into the extraordinary. And that is precisely what Softtwix does.
First, there are these magnetic faces, emerging from unexpected chiaroscuro, suspended in the shadowy depths of architecture. Whether inside a medieval church or an abandoned industrial wasteland, the portraits of Softtwix stare, question, and quietly scrutinize the viewer, who—facing these immobile giants—struggles to find their place. Who is looking, and who is being looked at? Out of this unsettling ambiguity, poetry arises—an instant of magical encounter between seer and seen, each unsure of their role. However monumental their scale—growing larger over the years—these faces remain gentle, yet carry an aloof, hieratic presence, out of time and space. Locked in their gaze, the visitor slowly loses themselves. The surrounding architecture—shadowed archways, framing walls—becomes a threshold, bridging the gap between the real and the imaginary, between our dimension and that fleeting one conjured by the artist.
And only then do we begin to realize the spell she has cast. This perfect image—what is it, exactly? A painting? A collage? A charcoal drawing? This deep, enveloping black, uniting our world with hers—where does it come from? There’s nothing to give it away. No fold in the paper, no seam, no printing dot. Nothing. Softtwix crafts her work like an alchemist, keeping her methods secret to leave only sensation—the feeling of encountering “the human” in all its poetic fragility, within the temporary temple she has granted it, where we stand trembling—struck as much by the grace of the image as by the gesture behind it. And that feeling—like the work itself—is utterly unique to her. No matter the place—a city wall, a festival, an urbex site—you leave enchanted, often with a photo in hand, smiling to yourself: I’ve seen a Softtwix…
The E.Dolls
My E.Dolls aren’t real women. Each one is a composite, created from different portraits I’ve taken—a face shape, a pair of eyes, a mouth… It’s a strange process. I often spend an entire day searching for the right balance in a face, keeping its asymmetry and emotional truth. Then I give them scars—unique to each one—marks of their story, their pain. They could have had names, because to me they each carry their own narrative, but I chose to give them numbers instead, to leave more space for the viewer. Some women recognize themselves, others see a sister, a friend… One collector even saw his mother, as a young woman.
« Recouvrement mural »
Before…
After…
Before…
After…
I love working on projects where I can cover entire walls. It creates total immersion.
In one installation, I was invited to work in a housing project in Abbeville. Visitors would wander from apartment to apartment, discovering each artist’s world. The apartments were all identical in layout, and I worried about viewer fatigue—what happens by the time you reach the 50th room? So I decided to create a kind of rusted-metal cave. I even covered the large window with retro-lit glass tiles, which looked completely real thanks to the exterior light. The piece was a great success—the immersion was incredibly effective.
In another piece, at the “Résidence Mont Blanc” in Rillieux-la-Pape, I wanted to transport visitors completely. They entered a social housing block, going from one apartment to the next. I thought it would be interesting if, upon stepping into mine, they suddenly found themselves elsewhere. To do this, I incorporated architectural elements from the Citadel of Doullens, where I had worked before. Visitors found themselves surrounded by brick walls—even though they had just walked into a concrete HLM. A striking, immersive experience.
“Ink Transfer”
As soon as I acquired my plotter, I resumed testing photo transfers onto various materials. Since 2017, I’ve conducted countless experiments. First, I had to find the right method: the ideal paper, the perfect transfer liquid, how to prepare the receiving surface, and finally the proper varnish… Once I had all the elements, it took years of practice to refine my technique and ensure the transfers would last over time. After seven years of research, it’s finally perfected—and I’m the only one using it, because I invented it!
E.Doll No.18 on a metal box
My first test on an old rusted metal box, created at the Label Valette Festival in 2018. I wasn’t sure what to expect—the surface was so textured by rust—but the ink transfer still worked. The result is intriguing, delicate, and deeply sensitive.
« Transfert in Situ »
E.Doll N° 07 on a tree.
My first test transferring onto a living surface, made on a tree during the Label Valette Festival in 2017. When you discover this E.Doll, she appears like a ghost… A bottle of water at the base of the tree allows you to wet the image, making her full face appear…
E.Doll N°18 on a metal box
My first test on an old rusted metal box, created at the Label Valette Festival in 2018. I wasn’t sure what to expect—the surface was so textured by rust—but the ink transfer still worked. The result is intriguing, delicate, and deeply sensitive.
