Strength and softness held in the same body.

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Drawing from warrior imagery and historical references, the body is marked with bold lines and assertive gestures that speak of resilience, protection and endurance. These graphic elements are deliberately counterbalanced by fragile floral patterns, carefully applied to introduce softness, intimacy and care. Strength and femininity are not treated as opposites here, but as forces that coexist within the same body.

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The result is not a character, but a state. The figure exists in a space where power does not erase delicacy, and where grace does not diminish force. Through this layered approach, the work challenges simplified readings of femininity and proposes a more complex, embodied presence.

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In a later phase of the project, collaboration continued with Sarie as both model and participant. She was transformed into a mermaid and placed at the Neptune Fountain in the centre of Brussels, surrounded by winter cold, traffic and concrete. Although the snow had not yet melted, it remains absent from the image, felt only through the body’s exposure and the atmosphere of the scene.

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This urban setting functions as more than a backdrop. Situated among highways, exits and constant movement, it becomes a quiet metaphor for transition and aspiration. The mermaid does not belong to the city, yet inhabits it fully. Within this friction between myth and reality, the work reflects on endurance, longing and the courage required to embody imagined selves within an unforgiving environment.