Mette Sterre (1983) is a Dutch artist/performance maker based in London and Rotterdam. She holds a Bachelor in Fine Art at the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam and a Master Degree in Performance Design and Practice from Central Saint Martins in London.
Her work deals with the grotesque: the world of topsy-turvy, the uncanny and the paradox. Inspired by Fibonacci, the carnivalesque, sociology and cultural history of horror movies, she’s currently focussing on the grotesque body.
She researches social political issues that she translates in costume based performances. These can
have the form of parades, short performances or theatre shows. The social cultural commentary is my
motivation to start creating, debating, involving, researching and discussing with others.
She does this by creating sculptural costumes, giving birth to new forms of living beings. They function as
“body masks”, covering the wearer from head to toe. They are heavy and hot to wear; all these
limitations add up to their transformative power. They are both an act of revelation and concealment, as
it shapes action while simultaneously disguising the body’s form and texture.
By the de-identification of the human body, she address the stigmatization of difference, questioning the
social construction of identity by blurring the boundaries between the inanimate and the animate,
gender and object and subject.
She performs her work herself, together with others that she directs. She also performs for other people. Her strong stage presence and use of the voice are her strongest assets.