The Human
Hunting Trophies are life-cast busts,
presented as animal trophies. Real
faces — parents, friends,
collaborators — emerge from the wall, attached to
a fragmented, recomposed, generic body. Each
piece bears a name, a date of
capture, sometimes a commissioner.
Between portrait,
relic, and vanity, these trophies highlight the tension
between the illusion of life and the impression of death.
The eyes are usually closed,
the figures seem to sleep,
both present and absent, suspended out of time.
Subtle chromatic vibrations create
a disturbing presence, while a glossy
varnish fixes the body,
transforming it into an object.
How
does the shift occur before the trophies ?
One projects oneself.
Become a trophy ? Own the effigy of a loved one ? Form
a collection ? Fascination and unease coexist :
they reflect our troubling impulses of desire,
domination, and possession.
The Human
Hunting Trophies question our need for
recognition, visibility, and trace. In the era of image
proliferation and exposed identities,
they offer another form of duplication: material,
silent, without promise of fame. A sleeping presence that persists without
responding.
Presented
in series, like hunting tableaux,
they create a disturbing inventory — not
a portrait gallery, but the possible
remains of a humanity in transformation.
