Jean-Vincent Simonet, 2014
Maldoror #6, 2014
Created by Jean-Vincent Simonet in 2014. Using inkjet print as the main medium, the artwork is displayed at 120 x 90 cm.
The artwork is multimedia, using a mix of analogue and digital imaging techniques.
When Jean-Vincent Simonet came across the book Les Chants de Maldoror (The Songs of Maldoror), he felt hugely attracted to the dark, theatrical and transgressive character. The cutting-edge book praising youth revolt, blasphemy and the victory of dream over reality was published in 1869 by Comte de Lautréamont. Simonet decided to revive the literary enigma. His photographs are based on the atmosphere it evokes: gothic angels provided with dramatic blue photoshopped skies full of stars and dead branches merged into pink and blue shapes that look like hairs. The eclectic style inspired him to shift between analogue and digital, using digital techniques to glitch and merge photographs. This enables the mysterious atmosphere of the book to become tangible in the pictures. That the book was once banned because of its blasphemous character, comes as no surprise.
Jean-Vincent Simonet, courtesy of the Foam Collection