Avatar - Au Hellfest 2022

Les Avatars de Vénus

The process leading to the making of the film-installation Les Avatars de Vénus goes back thirty years to the thousands of images I began picking up - from news stands, bookshops, libraries, museums, flea markets as I travelled around the world, drawing, photographing, analyzing, filming and remembering what I saw. Finally, I collected a giant image–bank of different incarnations of Venus spreading across time and space, coming from all continents, all civilizations, all epochs, respecting the logic of each one of them, regardless of the arbitrary ideological hierarchy established by academicians between High Art and Low Art. I chose to mix art history and popular imagery, Renaissance iconography and commercial advertisements, religious propaganda and common pornographic icons, movie stars and classical as well as non-occidental sculpture, all fetishes being complementary.

Red

Object: Alimony

Ruth Butler, a clerk in an emporium, marries Jimmy Rutledge and thereby greatly displeases his mother, the owner of the emporium, because of Ruth's lowly origins. Renaud Graham, one of Mrs. Rutledge's friends, becomes interested in Ruth, forces his way into her apartment, and attempts to make violent love to her. Jimmy walks in on their embrace and, suspecting the worst, leaves Ruth. In the family way, Ruth finds refuge in a boardinghouse where she meets Al Bryant, an aspiring writer. Ruth tells Al her life story, and he makes it into a bestselling novel and then into a play. Jimmy sees the play and comes to his senses, winning Ruth's forgiveness.