How does it feel to be in a suffocating love? Sasha Katz explores such bittersweet experience with 'Under the Ylang-Ylang Tree', a digital artwork intensely inspired by the delicate pastel portraits of the 17th-18th century French artists Jean-Baptiste Perronneau, Jean-Jacques Bachelier and Marguerite Gérard.
A golden-robed female figure attempts to kiss a riotous fluffy white cat under the green foliage of a ylang-ylang tree. The grainy texture combined with the soothing colour palette makes Katz's piece a deceiving portrait of love. Both the figures drown in the romantic idea of love as if they cannot escape the narrative of a peaceful relationship; the female subject, lost in her desire to love, does not realize the cat’s rebellion against it.
Katz's portraying skills help the viewer to feel the clashing emotions directly and tastefully. The atmosphere seems soaked in intensely sweet perfume, a conscious attempt of Katz to make the viewer enjoy the work as a virtual multi-sense piece.
