Le colibri d'Afrique
Le colibri d’Afrique is created by a transfer onto a veil and cardboard enhanced with pencil and make-up. In addition, Jean-Luc Verna uses iron nails, a wooden box, and Plexiglas to create this apparition of a hummingbird placed in a hand that he has hung on a wall like a Holy Face. Le colibri d’Afrique is reminiscent of the saints Agathe and Véronique, whom the artist transferred onto vintage paper from his drawings. The movement of the pencil and then the transfer onto the cardboard and veil allows the memory to recede in favour of the present. The drawing acts here as a go-between. Jean-Luc Verna makes sophisticated reproductions and displacements: from paper, he moves on to tracing paper and then to a photocopy, where the original drawing is enlarged and its precision degraded. This photocopy is then rubbed with trichloroethylene to be transferred onto a veil, and then reworked with pencil and eye shadow. By placing the viewer in the space between reality and its representation, Jean-Luc Verna demonstrates a desire to master appearances while imbuing a reference to the sacred, thus creating a mise en abyme of his own world.
Text written by Manon Prévost-Van Dooren as part of the partnership between the École du Louvre and Lafayette Anticipations – Fonds de dotation Famille Moulin.
Exhibitions
La Galerie des Galeries, Paris (France)
from 01 Oct to 29 Oct 2005
Espace d’arts plastiques de Vénissieux, Vénissieux (France)
from 28 May to 13 Jul 2005