EXHIBITIONS

Sabine Pigalle lives and works in Paris and is fascinated by religious history, mythology and Flemish primitive paintings. The Protectors series was already succesfully shown in Italy, France and the Netherlands and now is presented by NK Gallery for the first time in Antwerp. Every religion likes to present its saints with their own characteristics. They offer a global portrayal of mankind and an explanation of the world for those that worship them. In “Protectors” Sabine Pigalle gives her own interpretation of the Patron Saints of the different trades. Trough these figures she looks to establish a common ground that not only brings together different religions but also their own myths. As such “Protectors” is an intriguing play of metamorphisms. On a black backdrop the artist shows each character with one of its main attributes. Apollina is equipped with her pincers, Catherine her hat and Luc his palette. The attributes used in this series of photographs are borrowed designer objects. Pigalle portraits the figures as being both desirable yet as distant as idols. It is trough this that she makes us aware of the confusing connection that we maintained for all this time with the figures of the saints. The superstitions surrounding them made them both objects of possessions and of worship. Not entirely fully face on, in somewhat hieratic poses, the figures look like acient marble sculptures. According to Mannerist ideals they have a bluish tint to their flesh and in the image of Honoré for example shines trough the school of Fontainebleau. The series also shows that the artist is highly influenced by old Flemish paintings of devotion. Like those paintings Pigalle’s photographs are images of extreme realism that allow the viewer to identify with the characters represented, model themselves on them. Because of the paleness, the nakedness and the androgynous personalities the figures appear almost interchangeable: multiple forms of the same entity. Through refined aestheticism Sabine Pigalle revives the figures and builds a bridge between those legendary heroes and contemporary art. The figures belong as well to the world of dreams, fantasy, imagination and creativity of the artist herself, as well as to generations of worshippers who have been nurtured from this image. Altough near us they escape our grasp, endlessly fascinating.