WHAT IS IN MY MIND :
I have two favorites flowers : poppies and irises. On the left side of my mother's house grow violet and yellow bearded irises. They do not last long but every summer on their blossoming period, I remember they were my favorites of the garden. Their inside veinous organic patter and furry pistils inspired me for the design of this look. Thus I chose violet and yellow as imposed colour combination for our promotion shooting. The fabric Florent Seligmann used to create the dress was initially white. I dyed it 4 times using different techniques and paint brushes to reach the organic feeling of a flower's petal.

A few years ago, I picked up again drawing as a way for me to express my feelings and one day as I was eating alone at my university's cafeteria because I had no friends there yet, I drew a sad being sitting in the middle of the pistils of a blooming flower. I did that again with clay last year. Sat sad characters are reminiscent in my drawing and turning their sadness into only a soft eerie melancholic dress was a way for me to start this competition on the right foot for healing.

There are three insects on the first picture. One common grass yellow butterfly in my hair, one morpho (which I draw my name from) on my chest and one fake golden bee on my left ear's jewel. The blue morpho was initially complete and intact at the beginning of the promo shooting and it slowly started to break apart throughout the day. The fragility of their wigs was used as a metaphor of the ephemeral feeling of being alive (butterflies being a symbol of death) which ultimately is what I want to create in my audience when I perform on stage.

Anyway, what a way to start this competition but to birth from a flower! I am a fairy after all!
(Credits on the next slide) 

CREDITS :
Design and embellishments : @morphae._
Look: @florent.seligmann
Nails : @nail.o.is
Hair: @wigsbysire
Extra help: @thimotb and @alexchaudoir
Makeup used: @martinecosmetics @kryolanofficial
Stylist assistant on set: @_seikatsu__

WHAT IS IN MY MIND :
I approached my entry as a metaphorical beginning of a hospitalisation. For unknown reasons, a strange being happened to come out of the smoke cloud reigning around the burned fields. She is still alive and she is looking for a place to take care of her. She found an entry door and in two seconds, she arrived in Drag Race Belgium season 2 as patient 09 Morphae.

As I have already witnessed and stitched up bleeding injuries in my medical practice, and as I myself once got injured badly and bled a lot, this look speaks to me. Fun fact, I am scared of my own blood and ever since this incident and my first performance was a catharsis of that specific trauma. Body horror is medium I explore a lot for its connection to queerness, monstrosity and medical violence. Lemaine, the designer of this look, gracefully accepted to work with me and create this stunning gory flesh piece and I am extremely grateful for that. My entrance being very conceptual in itself also was a safe way for me to channel my character. I looked scared, and it was actually my real fear and social anxiety (triggered by arriving last in a social group already made up) that I used to my advantage. 
(Credits on the next slide) 

CREDITS :
Artistic direction and model: @morphae._
Photographer : @flav_sgl
Designer : @lemaine__
Hair : @tois_hair
Nails : @nail.o.is
MUA and SFX : @morphae._
Photo assistant : @eulalomanie

WHAT IS IN MY MIND :
For a moment, I am patient, cabled to IV bags and naked in a standard hospital dress, in an unknown hospital wandering through the hallways and I stumble upon a public piano in the main hall (a reference to the CHU of Liege, a hospital in my native city where there is a piano I used to play in the main hall). I made this dress as a reference to the psychiatric world through the old white quilted leather fabric harvested from a thrown away chair. I was almost naked underneath it, barefoot. I added real butterflies in my hair, butterflies being a symbol of death in some context.

I chose to challenge myself to get risky and play piano for the talent show. I had 8 years of training in my youth and I had to rehearse again a lot to relearn this piece. I played Ballade n°1 in G Minor, op 23 by Chopin, my favorite classical piano piece. I imagined this performance as a suspended moment, not meant to be impressive or tell a specific story but only an emotion. Grief, sadness, anger, anything that you felt is valid. A moment to forget and remember the sense of loss, the loss of loved ones and the tears given away. As I was playing, I channeled my own sense of loss and I was thinking of my deceased father, wondering if he could hear me ; the same way Kosei dedicated this same piano piece to Kaori in the final scene of one of my favorite anime "Your lie in April". This show as a direct ode to all the patients i have met working as an apprentice doctor in hospitals, I thank you all for the wisdom you taught me through illness.
(Credits on the next slide) 

CREDITS :
Artistic direction and model : @morphae._
Photographer : @typic.aelix
Hair : @tois_hair
Dress, butterflies and MUA : @morphae._

WHAT IS IN MY MIND :
Denial

Empty room filled with nothing. Nothing but frames that are empty. Simple vision of absurdity.
I just came back from a rainy funeral, still wearing my coat and mourning veil inspired by Robert Sun 2023 and Armani 2012. I am holding a picture but I am not looking at it. 



Anger

Why? I am not violent but I wish I broke myself all the umbrellas in the room. Most of the frames fell in the process.
Anger is not in my temperament because it is a feeling that scares me. But my mind, it can hold storms of thoughts able to wipe and parasite everything.



Depression

I am inside my house but it's about to rain. 
I quickly metabolise all my negative feelings into melancholy because this is my own defence mechanism. Pathological grief can be intense, make sure to reach out to your friends and mental health professional if you are going through it. 



Acceptation

It is raining inside. I am wet but it is a good thing. I do not need an umbrella anymore.
I tried standing like this model in that famous picture from Alexander McQueen 1998. Grief is a long term process for me and while I still feel it, I think I can now see how it kind of also impacted me positively. Morphae was born before grief and it gave her a motor to create even more.
(Credits on the next slide) 

CREDITS :
Artistic direction and model : @morphae._
Photographer : @flav_sgl
Designer : @thimotb
Tulle and face veil embroidery : @masha_plokhuta
Trench and shoes embroidery : @calciiifer@alessio.cpb @_espressa @morphae._@nail.o.is @mikaeljuquin
Wig : @wigsbycaramelle
MUA : @morphae._
Photoshoot assistant : @eurybiexp
Inspired by @robertwun 2023 @giorgioarmani2012 and @alexandermcqueen 1998

WHAT IS IN MY MIND :
What a strange coincidence that I randomly got the colour black for the couture challenge. This was the perfect occasion for me to talk about the complex relationship I have with darkness. 
I have been criticised, judged and ostracised by some and within the conventional drag queen for being too dark, not funny enough. All of this has led me to dig back into my insecurities of being "a bad person", someone whose aura only hurts the ones around me. This is obviously deeply rooted with my past and the violence I received for being different. But as I said, the best way I found to exorcise those dark thoughts is to give them a form and a moment to exist in the material world, sublimated and acknowledged for being negative. Without it, those traumas would stay within and slowly poison my soul further. 
Not shying away from the real and raw disturbing shapes of human despair is to me a process very much needed and actually very bright. The stars wouldn't shine if it wasn't for the black night.
This look is inspired by look 76 of the SS 2001 Alexander McQueen "Voss" collection. It is made out of a textured plastic fabric fused with black green hued ostrich and rooster feathers thanks to black hot glue. This very raw "skinned" result is a glue technique I have been developing for more than a year now and being able to do it in the show was such a blast. The TV lights didn't give it justice tho and I realise I should have accessorised it more to be eye catching on screen. The wig I wore is a prototype black wig shaved to the lace. A paradox way of treating a wig, giving more value to its hidden parts rather than the shiny outside of the hair. Some black feathers are mixed within the hair.
Last, the duality of one normal hand and the other one being coated with roughly cut feathers also is a direct reference to the theme of hidden darkness versus the outside polish and clean mask we all wear. Who will help you more? The sublimated darkness or the external shiny appearance? Both options are valid and should be celebrated.
(Credits on the next slide)

CREDITS :
Artistic direction and model : @morphae._
Photographer : @typic.aelix
Look, hair and MUA : @morphae._
Black couture challenge look inspired by SS 2001 @alexandermcqueen « Voss » look 76

WHAT IS IN MY MIND :
The purple cathedral, 2018

Floor1:
A house
Absurd, and
Cold
The walls have never been painted
The rooms shrunk
Blind windows
Hidden
A vase and a flower
Orange
Orange like dawn
Life knows 
How fragile the glimmer is
Unleashed rains and desolate droughts
Never wilted
There is that television 
Random channels
Same noise
It never stops
Ploc Ploc Ploc
Somewhere
There is that leak
They're out there
The paint faces
Judging
The poison inoculated
Sometimes
The lonely lightbulb dies
And the orange spark
Melts in the twilight
Tic Tac Toc
The sink's tears resonate
There is that swamp
And it spreads

(Credits on the last slide)

Floor2:
Downstairs
The television whistles
The vipers hunt
The sink cries
Upstairs
The doors shut
Same pattern
The fan endlessly spins
The flower yells
Agony or warning
There is that doll crawling on the ground
Insane shadows
Soon throughout the hallway
Nearby
Door open
Breeze
Swoop in and
Shut

Within:
Dust
Dancing clouds
Painfully scratched off
The polished crust
No light bulb
In the purple cathedral
There are only those candles
Warm
Wild flowers 
On the walls
Forgotten stars
On the vault
In and out of order
They were already within
Staggered knickknacks
The gentle butterfly supports through the glass
The jar of sweet honey sparks of blooming sunshine
The courageous pencil writes its own colours
The goofy kaleidoscope captures new delirious reflections
The feathery dreamcatcher cleanses the soul's windows
The reckless spinning top zigzags between lands and seas
The nacreous pearl stands still, smooth and strong
The mysterious amethyst reveals its deep blue crystals
The eerie wooden mirror paints the quintessence of Life
Echo in the vastness
Wonders of a growing harmony
Between denied paths
Toc Tac Tic
The cuckoo clock gives a second chance
To live
Again
Swamp becomes river
And its mouth
Nearby
They are beautiful
Eternal
In the setting sun
The wind blows all around
Yet
They stood and stand
Shining in the heart of the cathedral
The Universe receives
Songs from another time
And the tears
Flow with the tide.

Out:
Somewhere
Back in time
A child smiles
Where the yellow butterfly flies
There is that world
A world with magic
And 
No time.

The purple cathedral is a poem I wrote several years ago about a life changing dream I had. Every floor of a house was a chapter of my life. Floor one was bullying and violence. Floor two was the anxiety caused by it and my life in America. Within/the attic was finding my inner empty safe space that looked liked a purple cathedral that needed to be furnished when I came back in Europe. And Out was a suspended garden, an unknown bright future that I am now building ever since. This lamp is the first object I put in that attic. Purple like the walls, green like the ivy and orange like my favorite colour that I associate with hope and the fact that I survived my childhood. I made it myself which is why it s a bit wonky but behind every splash of rust and every brush stroke is a story that I would never write differently.

CREDITS :
Artistic direction and model : @morphae._
Photographer : @flav_sgl
Designer : @thimotb
Hair and hat : @morphae._
Nails : @nail.o.is
Shooting assistant : @eulalomanie
Inspired by Fall 2009 « Horn of plenty » by @alexandermcqueen and traditional Tiffany lamps.

WHAT IS IN MY MIND :
A black scary spider in a too small bedroom 
I recreated with wood, wallpaper and various objects a corner of my childhood bedroom 65% smaller to create without photoshop a unique perspective. From my childhood books, to my toys and butterfly frames, everything is there and all the details are meticulously chosen. I was borned and raised in the countryside of Belgium. The insects were abundant and so were the spiders. In that specific corner above my bed, there were very often those thin legged spiders. Overtime, I grew an arachnophobia that I still have today. Seeing a real spider in front of me is really really hard and I usually run away and ask for help. 

When asked to recreate an Eurovision look knowing I never watched this show, it was a real struggle. The only look that stood in my eyes for its beautiful simplicity and poesy was what the lead singer of Hooverphonic wore for their 2021 performance. This black sequin dress gently shined like the clear starry night in the countryside. And this blue eye watching us projected behind her felt like it had something to say, as if scared of something. I therefore decided to join my interpretations of this performance into a dress that could also tell my own story. The story of a child scared of the dark and spiders that try to fall asleep under this scary corner with the stars as the only source of light.

Thank you so much Sam Ceci for recreating this vision of mine. You did it justice. And I am really happy that the stylist that put this look together for Hooverphonic at the time and the singer herself liked my reinterpretation of their work.

(Credits on the last slide)

Épicurienne du temps, de l’imparfait au plus-que-parfait  
The reason why I decided to leave Drag Race was to respect my story which peacefully was coming to an end. Retrospectively, I realise this decision also tells a story. The story of a young being who has forever been told to stay small, to accept the way I was treated because the world would not care, to not establish boundaries because they were being violated anyway and to believe that to fit in I can’t listen to my feelings. But this is not a story I choose to live in. My feelings were telling me that if I had stayed, it would have affected me. So I listened to them.
My art is about stories. My art is about emotions. I weave colourful dark narratives to materialise my vision of the world. And I am somewhat that dark alien fairy that will never know if she prefers to be a caterpillar, a cocoon or a butterfly because she cannot understand why one is considered better or more finished that another one. My metamorphosis is non-linear and will endlessly be. Being casted and liked backstage for my differences but defined as amateur on screen is something I chose to stand against. Not out of spite. But because when I was asked how I felt, I just replied kindly that I am unapologetically me. And that if I need to change to fit in, I prefer to emerge from my chrysalis and continue to create in the real world for the ones that understand. 
The quote I wrote on top of this post is what is written on my dad’s grave. And this is what I said as my exit line as I was leaving before saying « Morphae out ». I am sad you weren’t able to see me pay homage to his memory and to leave in dignity and gratefulness because this is how I left. Not angry. Not vengeful. Just proud to bring monsters to the main stage. And for that, I thanked and thank Drag race again. If I had to do it again knowing how it was gonna end, I would do it without an hesitation. It is overwhelming, stressful, beautiful, triggering, exciting and ugly at the same time but all of its good and bad parts are what makes Life worth living, contrasted. The same way light cannot be without the presence of darkness.

I dream a lot and I have nightmares even more. I usually remember them and write them on my phone. I only have had one recurring nightmare in my life and I think it crystallised my visceral fear of death. In this nightmare, I am not really there physically. I am more an outside observer. My entire vision is filled with dirt and earthy matter pilled in a gigantic hill. At first the silence but I can notice small scratching sounds, like if there was ants or other insects crawling everywhere inside the structure. The more my vision travels up toward the tops of the hill the more the sounds become unbearable, not because they are too loud but because because it is more and more evident there is something inevitable that is about to happen. Like the rising chants of invisible small disgusting entities announcing the end. Never do I really see what make those sounds but I know there is something. At the end, my vision reaches the top of the hill and as it does so, a transcendent beam of cold white light shatters the ground and split the hill open in two. Everything is carried away and disintegrated by this laser. All matter, me included. It is unescapable. It is everything and nothing at the same time. The end of life altogether. 

And thats where I wake up.

CREDITS :
Artistic direction and model : @morphae._
Photographer : @solovvvovvv
Designer : @_espressa / @sam.ceci
Hair : @tois_hair
Mouthpiece : @god_forbid_fashion
Nails : @nail.o.is @morphae._
MUA : @morphae._
Light assistant : @chicamaaktpiccas
Stylist assistant : @_espressa
Scenography : @morphae._
Inspired by @hooverphonicoff ’s 2021 Eurovision performance « The Wrong Place » and my arachnophobia.

WHAT IS IN MY MIND :
Transphobia in society and on dating apps is the scourge that, I, Morphae, Minister of Full Sensuality, vow to fight against. Queers bodies are beautiful, deserve love without fetishisation and censorship. I want to introduce a law that would establish a mandatory preliminary test to register to a dating app. A test that ensures that all users have a loose.. and open mind. My sphincters are not clogged anymore so see you on online 
Trans rights are human rights. 

The theme of "sensual wholeness" has been imposed to my minister character. Initially thought to create a satire of right wing over masculine celebrity politicians driven by their own self image, I had to shift towards sensuality (thank god this suit was made to make me look sexy either way). And what a better way to write a love letter to the transgender community by mixing an excessively muscular and bulged silhouette and my own transfeminity. 
Unfortunately cut short in my speech, you weren't able to hear the rest of my law that goes straight into trans rights and queer sexual emancipation. As a trans feminine being and for all the trans siblings, I wanted to denounce the sexual violence we face on dating apps (fetishisation, slurs, bodyshaming, etc). Trans beings are sexy no matter the codes the heteronormative society tries to instil in the beauty and sex industry. 

(Credits on the last slide)

CREDITS :
Artistic direction and model : @morphae._
Photographer : @flav_sgl
Designer : @florent.seligmann
Hair : @wigsbysire
Nails and MUA : @morphae._
Light assistant : @eurybiexp

WHAT IS IN MY MIND :

(Credits on the last slide)

CREDITS :