These are cement blocks made from slash-and-burn, eroded, perforated with color bleedings. The shapes are diverse, and these sculpture-paintings can be hung as desired. Thus, each work has four possible definitions. These drips, the result of a skillful alchemy explained by the artist, are composed of cements, wood glue, fibers, and acrylic paint.
Martin Miguel gives us the components. Raphael Monticelli wonderfully defines the work of this painter, sculptor, and visual artist: “Art makes the wall…” One can see it as a symbol of escape, of newfound freedom. The wall has been dug, and sweat and blood escape from it.
The wall can also be seen as a work of art. It is eroded, colored, and what might be mistaken for slash-and-burn is actually the result of a skillful mix of wood shavings, black oxide, linseed oil, and siccative (a product used to dry oil paint). “The soft and the hard in my work are two states separated by time.”
The cement is hard and the slash-and-burn, black lace is the soft. Two opposites that associate and ultimately unite. This wall is perforated, and a stream of light penetrates, the light of freedom. The artist draws on the cold cement, evoking thoughts of the Little Prince, and the sheep here are two spots of color that brighten the dull and gray sadness of concrete.
Each painting sculpture is a poem and a message of hope for those imprisoned by the ever too narrow four walls of their home or prison. The hole is more than a window; it opens up the perspective of a sunny horizon. It will be noted that the colors are bright and burning, rays of light.
This exhibition will challenge your certainties. Not everything is sad and dull; even concrete can inspire poetry, and a wall ultimately has many things to tell us.
Thierry Jan
