Fleur Joesten (born 1995) is a mixed media artist who lives in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, with her two cats Yara and Milly. She describes herself as an "experimentalist", using different textures, colours, materials and techniques to create and tell stories taken from life, history, cinema, video games, myths, legends and folklore. There is a sense of hyperrealism to her work, making you question if what you see before your eyes is actually real or not.

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Her art is very much a process of trial and error. She uses and repurposes secondhand materials when possible, being mindful of the environment and reducing waste. Science and scientific knowledge is used for artistic purposes, by for example using a chemical reaction in order to emulate a material or substance. For her Fallout project she created an iconic Nuka-Cola fridge including dripping radioactive goo.

 

Don't worry, the Geiger counter won't panic near Fleur's creations.

 

Through her art she explores the relationship between light and dark, the good and the bad, the moral and the immoral. She will make you challenge your beliefs around life, death, beauty, decay, masculinity and femininity, as well as modern day society and our rituals, traditions and ideals. At the foundation of everything that she does is a love for humanity, an admiration for the resilience of the human spirit, and its ability to survive in the harshest conditions. The human mind is capable of creation and destruction. Fleur explores the relationship between the two, and the grey where the two meet.

 

Life is an intricate web of people who make decisions every day that lead to the world being what it is and what we see when we walk out of the front door. Fleur wants you to question and reflect, even just for a moment, what that means to you. To explore our place amongst the stars, and to find a sense of belonging in being part of everything.

 

Nothing is as it seems, and everything is as it seems. It is up for you to decide what you see in the art that she has presented you with, and to make up your own mind.​​