Thyl Détré

Thyl is a French art director/graphic designer, born in 1969, living in the south of France. He attended a few art-schools in the late 80’s. Back then his main focus was on painting, but he also made pictures by other methods (photography, collages, etc.). He’s now working on web design, graphic arts and digital pictures.

In 2002 Thyl and his girlfriend Sarah decided to make use of the virtual characteristic of the internet to create an imaginary character, semi-fictitious and in-progress. Sarah would be the model, it was in April, so Sarah April was born… The goal was to work on reality/fiction, privacy/exhibition, shuffling those cards and see what goes on. Exploring the connections between celebrity, the body, worship and the hyper-mediated experience of the internet. The formula seems to work out rather well. Quickly, people were very curious about Sarah April, who she is, what her thing is, is she an actress? etc… The combination of Sarah’s powerful acting and the web’s speed turned this character to somebody real – this project wouldn’t have been possible without the very unique characteristics of the web. Now Sarah and Thyl are married, and work as a duet on this project. Sarah April became an icon for a Belgian design company, has been on magazines covers, fashion series, etc…, they’re also working on a book  and short movies… and still don’t know how far it’ll go.