1 Who says surface also speaks of appearance, except, the work of JCQ does not let itself go to a pure superficiality of appearances.

The scopic drive of Pierre Louys had led him to photograph all the women with whom he had made love. These images of great sensuality shaped a representation of intimacy that had never been codified. There emerges from the work of Jean-Charles de Quillacq a comparable sensuality. Not that offered bodies are particularly represented there, let us say rather that, if a skin is exposed here, it would be that of the images. We could therefore approach the work of JCQ [1] as research that would be carried out mainly on the surface.

2 Piece consisting of a poster of the film La gueule Ouvert by Maurice Pialat that JCQ covered with white paint to leave visible only the word “open” overhung by his name.

Using either photographic prints or the photography of digitally assembled photographs, JCQ emphasizes that the physical space of an image is a space of representation. As such, the alterations produced on its surface, although physical, are confused with their own appearance, like the erasures made with a pen in Under my skin. This ambivalence between the sign and the trace forces those who look at JCQ's pieces to constantly be wary of appearances. Ironically, Plus, a bottle of colorful volumizing shampoo evokes, like a vanity, the promise made to the consumer, of puffy hair which are implicitly effective sexual signals. Surface degradation is a recurring process in the work of the artist. Thus, contrary to the classic presentation devices which seek to highlight while protecting the illustrated face of a representation, the Photos & fimo sculptures are built around an image glued face against the top of a table covered with polymer clay. . In each of the occurrences that make up this piece, the inkjet printing is largely obliterated by the plate and it is obvious that to try to separate them, we would sacrifice the content of the image partly retained by the stickiness of the paste. This sacrifice is at the center of a piece entitled Perfect mask. Applying a cosmetic gesture to the image, that of waxing, JCQ removes the layer charged with pigments by means of the sticky surface of pieces of adhesive which he then exposes. The analogy between the epidermis and the surface of a photograph is also underlined by the recurrence of orifices: the representation of an object through which the gaze passes (Rainbow two holes, Sea bream, etc.). However, what do these orifices pierce if not the surface of the image that represents them? In the same vein, this is also one of the ways to understand [2]?