FOMU EN

Strange Love is an exhibition of recent collages inspired by John Stezaker's fascination with fairy tales, magic and metamorphosis. As in all his work, Stezaker draws on outdated media images from earlier eras of visual enchantment. While images are at the core of our communication today, we are less and less aware of them as images.

Stezaker emphasises the magical power of images through alienation and interruption, which he sees as a restorative regression to a past enchantment. His well-known Masks series combines postcards and portraits, forcing the viewer to bridge the worlds of landscape and human face in an imaginary metamorphosis. He uses a similar technique in the Spells series, where human figures seem to emerge from images of invertebrate life.

The kiss, an iconic image of cinema, often recurs in his work, and in Strange Love, Stezaker emphasises the layers of horror that lie behind this familiar image. Many of the works in this exhibition were created during lockdown, when Stezaker reread the illustrated fairy tale books that enchanted him as a child, such as Arabian Nights, The Waterbabies and Grimm's fairy tales, which are the origins of his own love of images.

Bio

John Stezaker (°1949, Worcester, UK) lives and works in London. He studied at the Slade School of Art in London. The artist became fascinated by the use of images that had nothing to do with the then-current cultural forms of expression, such as pop art. Combining / assembling found images (photographs) instantly generated a different form of aesthetics, in which anachronisms and vagueness about intentions took control of a well-made (visual) plot that served to disrupt the public’s perception.

Programme

• 19:15 — Doors
• 19:30-20:30 — Conversation between John Stezaker and Stefan Vanthuyne
• 20:30-21:00 — Q&A
• 21:00 — End

Practical information

• The artist talk is in in English
• Visit the exhibition at Gallery Sofie Van de Velde (Léon Stynenstraat 21, 2000 Antwerpen)