Galerie Maria Bernheim is delighted to be presenting a new solo project by Swiss artist Denis Savary for MiArt 2019. The gallery will share the booth B08 with Madragoa from Lisbon.
This new body of work draws upon Savary’s interest in different techniques and all the multifarious aspects that can be achieved within them. These 4 unique sculptures combine glass, concrete and metal to achieve a hybrid form, between fauna and flora, abstraction and figuration, they take the viewer on a sensorial journey. As always with Savary, the works refers to art historical images as well as ancient myths and figures.
Almost like jewels at first sight, the sculptures entitled “Shunga”, referencing literally the idiom “Image of Spring”, a euphemism insinuating the sexual act. The most common character of the shunga is the courtesan of the Yoshiwara (the pleasure district of Edo) which could be compared nowadays to celebrities and the district itself to Hollywood. They had a strong erotic potential due to their profession but remained inaccessible at the same time. Only very wealthy men could hope to afford their services, while women saw them as fascinating idols.
Some of these motifs and myths have been represented in prints; which also featured zoophilic scenes such as The Fisherman's Wife's Dream of Hokusai, 1814. She represents a woman embraced by the tentacles of two octopuses. The smallest one hugs one of her breasts and kisses her, while the largest octopus practices cunnilingus. Another print illustrates the legend of Tamori, the abalone fisherman, where Tamori steals the diamond from the King of the Seas. The latter, with the help of his troop (including octopuses), pursued her. In the text accompanying the engraving, the diver and two octopuses experience mutual pleasure.
Another point of reference in contemporary culture which has drawn upon similar ideas, is the short story by J.G. Ballard, "Le Jeu des écrans" from 1963, in which the heroine Emerelda is about to star in the film Aphrodite 80 which replays the myth of Orpheus. Emeralda is systematically surrounded by a cloud of spiders and living scorpions that she sets and decorates with precious stones.
The specific treatment of the glass refers to the work of the Gallé Brothers and the School of Nancy, pioneers of the movement of Art Nouveau that flourished in Europe from 1890 until 1910. Savary draws inspiration in particular from the drawings of Emil Gallé who was himself fascinated by butterflies and dragonflies that he had seen in the Animated Flowers by Grandville.
Denis Savary currently lives and works in London, he has exhibited extensively in institutions and galleries internationally and is currently the subject of a major retrospective at the Musée des Beaux Arts – La Chaux-de-Fonds.
