ARTISTS
South African artist (1971) living in Paris and photographer by training, I have, at the beginning of my research, built many large scale models, with different mediums that I then photographed.
More recently, the practice of ceramics has allowed me to make my models works in their own right and no longer a support for photographic work. This material, so concrete, so noble and so fragile has no equal to express the precarious beauty of our existence.
I approach the theme of "Memento Mori" with a series of human skulls in the tradition of vanities and still lifes. Each piece becomes the support of a unique universe, shown or secretly hidden inside the skulls, representation of the particular imaginary world of each one.
My latest works are large-scale installations that reflect my questioning of our relationship to the world and to nature, at this moment in human history when our activity threatens our environment. They confront us with a post-human world, still haunted by the architectural ruins of abandoned cities, ultimate evocations of the history of our civilizations, still cluttered with the polluting waste of our devouring consumer societies, but where animal and plant nature regain their rights.
A sort of naturalist resurrection, but also a worried warning about the future of our society.
Vivian Van Blerk
