This is the second piece I intend to submit to the Spier Contemporary 2010, the other being A Home Away From Home. As with that other painting, it attempts to reflect on the disassociation and isolation of being a foreigner, an expatriate and an outsider. The subject is Death from James Ensor’s 1888 Christ’s Entry into Brussels (Death is on the bottom left of the crowd, with a green hat and coat).
The reasons why are pretty straight-forward: I feel that masks and symbols, especially those of monsters and beasts are all too often overlooked as part of the artistic arsenal in search of the new and the sensational. Art is about the monsters and beasts, the masks and the symbols that we wear and become. I think James Ensor understood that and, therefore, I feel a link to my homeland both through theme and through much more pedestrian geographical reasons.
The purpose was, therefore, to echo back to Mr. Esnor the noise his symbols made, and bring to him a revision of the horrors and beasts lay far from home.
A large version can be found here.
Renaud | 20-Oct-09 at 5:42 pm | Permalink
Reminds me of Tim Burton’s “Nightmare before Christmas” for some obscure reason. Very awesome though…