“VIOLET LUST” MIXED MEDIA NEON SCULPTURE

“VIOLET LUST” (2021) is a mixed-media neon sculpture by Indira Cesarine that merges photography, light, and language to explore themes of desire, sexuality, dreams, and female empowerment. Layered over the artist’s medium-format photograph “Les Roses Violettes” from her “Labyrinth” series, the work transforms a field of violet roses into a surreal psychological landscape where fantasy, memory, and longing converge.

Surrealism has remained a recurring influence throughout Cesarine’s artistic practice since her earliest explorations in photography. Inspired by the movement’s fascination with dreams, symbolism, and the subconscious, she has continually revisited these themes through a distinctly female perspective. While studying Art History at Columbia University in Paris, Cesarine examined the relationship between Surrealism, sexuality, and representations of women, exploring how many of the movement’s historical depictions of female subjects were filtered through the lens of the male gaze. In contrast, her work seeks to reclaim narratives surrounding female identity, desire, and self-determination.

In “VIOLET LUST,” the illuminated neon text emerges from the floral imagery like a thought, fantasy, or dream rising from the subconscious mind. The word “lust” functions as both declaration and act of reclamation. For centuries, women have been shamed, controlled, or punished for openly expressing sexual desire, while female sexuality has often been defined through the expectations and fantasies of others. Cesarine reclaims the word as an affirmation of women’s right to embrace pleasure, desire, and bodily autonomy on their own terms. The work reflects the principles of sex-positive feminism, challenging outdated stigmas that continue to shape perceptions of women’s sexuality around the world.

The violet palette further amplifies the work’s dreamlike atmosphere. Associated with sensuality, mystery, imagination, and transformation, the color blurs the boundaries between reality and fantasy. Through the interplay of photography and glowing neon light, “VIOLET LUST” occupies a liminal space between the physical and psychological, inviting viewers to navigate the labyrinth of desire, perception, and the unconscious mind.

Part photograph, part sculpture, and part illuminated manifesto, “VIOLET LUST” expands the visual language of Cesarine’s “Labyrinth” series while offering a bold meditation on female sexuality, freedom, and empowerment.