Video: Devilry wax and bronze. Horned self-portraits by Jan Fabre in the series of sculptures CHAPTERS I - XVIII
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
Provocative paintings, sculptures, installations and art performances won the fame of the "great and terrible" Belgian maestro Jan Fabre … His works are so shocking that in the degree of strangeness they can compete with the works of the famous Damien Hirst, but this did not prevent them from showing off in the halls of the Louvre itself, opposite the immortal masterpieces of medieval painters and sculptors. Horns and hooves, bones, blood and internal organs, insects, crosses and gravestones, skeletons, death and other devilry - this is a short list of those foundations on which Jan Fabre's extraordinary creativity is based. Well, and a part of him, of course, is also in every, without exception, the work of the Belgian sculptor. One of the most emotional works is called a series of strange mystical sculptures called CHAPTERS I - XVIII … Carefully and carefully, with great love and tenderness, Jan Fabre casted from wax and bronze busts realistic to the smallest detail … with his own portrait. Moreover, modified in the spirit of Mephistopheles and Lucifer, with all the corresponding attributes. Gorgeous horns in the assortment, growing not only from the forehead of a self-portrait, but also from its nose and crown, gracefully complement and accentuate the possessed grimaces and charming vampire and maybe demonic fangs. Probably a tribute to the fashion for everything inexplicable, mystical and sinister, or maybe the author just likes to play with otherworldly forces, depicting them in satirical sculptures, which he previously presented with his own face.
Although longtime fans of Jan Fabre's shocking creativity are no strangers. Their favorite has long been calling himself a modern mystic, and therefore does not hesitate to combine the images of saints with demonic creatures, and to portray the symbols of the Orthodox Church in an unusual, and in some cases, incorrect way. In the heart of the 54-year-old sculptor, a revolutionary, rebellious spirit is raging, which pushes him to defiant and eccentric actions, which have blossomed with bright colors in the official biography. So, he decorated his street with a sign with the inscription "Jan Fabre lives and works here", painted a whole series of paintings with his own blood, created an incredible installation of 1.5 million scarab beetles, and for another installation he built a giant worm, crowned with a copy of his own head who not only blinked and opened her mouth, but even talked. So the strange horned sculptures from the CHAPTERS I - XVIII series, entirely cast from wax and bronze, are far from the limit of the author's creative imagination and his non-standard ideas, which can be called delusional hallucinations.
In addition to sculptures, paintings and installations, Jan Fabre is known as the author of musical and dance performances and choreographic productions. The versatile art of this avant-garde eccentric can be found on his website.
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