David Altmejd: Sarah Altmejd
Exhibition
February 22 – March 29, 2003
Project Description
Sarah is David Altmejd’s sister, and she is the inspiration for his latest work. These “portraits”, as the artist calls them, are inspired by chosen moments in her life, like family snapshots taken at special occasions. However, they are far from being faithful representations of his sister’s physical features: more precisely, they evolve into strange monstruous heads.
Covered with synthetic hair and ornated with jewels and crystals, these plaster casts are playing opposing roles between seduction and repulsion, beauty and hideousness. These inanimated objects grow small sparkling structures which contradict the viewers’ original disgust, as if the flesh was transforming into mineral matter. It would be wrong to see any form of account settling between the artist and his “adored” sister, as he says. Here, Altmejd takes advantage of the singular liberty of the artist — the capacity to destroy what one loves to re-create something else — to make autonomous works of art that stray from their starting point.