Artist: Sébastien Bonin
Exhibition title: Le désespoir des singes
Venue: Island, Brussels, Belgium
Date: September 7 – October 14, 2017
Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Island, Brussels
Painting is just painting, it is finding an equilibrium, a body, a border between the tangible and the spiritual. Le désespoir des singes is the tree that grows in a cavern, a tree of memories but also of the past, it is the fireproof conifer symbol of memory.
To profess taking out your paintbrushes to share an autobiography is complex endeavour, the old me, the present me; this dichotomy is forever the helmsman. All the pictural propositions have been elaborated from memories, they have suffered ruptures, transformations and rips. To each one its own format, they have searched for their individual emancipation whilst always keeping the others at their side. They have fought to be painted, enduring the moods, the trials of time, the laughter and anger of their author. The time has come to take them out, to unveil them to the light and the eyes, the onlooker’s gaze rendering them evermore alive.
Sébastien Bonin, Le désespoir des singes, 2017, exhibition view, Island, Brussels
Sébastien Bonin, Le désespoir des singes, 2017, exhibition view, Island, Brussels
Sébastien Bonin, Le désespoir des singes, 2017, exhibition view, Island, Brussels
Sébastien Bonin, Le désespoir des singes, 2017, exhibition view, Island, Brussels
Sébastien Bonin, Le désespoir des singes, 2017, exhibition view, Island, Brussels
Sébastien Bonin, Le désespoir des singes, 2017, exhibition view, Island, Brussels
Sébastien Bonin, Le désespoir des singes, 2017, exhibition view, Island, Brussels
Sébastien Bonin, Le désespoir des singes, 2017, exhibition view, Island, Brussels
Sébastien Bonin, Le désespoir des singes, 2017, exhibition view, Island, Brussels
Sébastien Bonin, Le désespoir des singes, 2017, exhibition view, Island, Brussels
Sébastien Bonin, Le ballon crevé, 2017, oil on canvas, 30 x 24 cm
Sébastien Bonin, Le Monal, 2017, wool, wax and honey, 165 x 13,5 x 13,5 cm
Sébastien Bonin, Le masque de nez, 2017, oil on canvas, 40 x 30 cm
Sébastien Bonin, La canette de Tropico, 2017, oil on canvas, 18 x 24 cm
Sébastien Bonin, Le pendu, 2017, oil on canvas, 24 x 30 cm
Sébastien Bonin, La chose qui nous regarde depuis la jungle, 2017, oil on canvas, 140 x 200 cm
Sébastien Bonin, Le perroquin, 2017, oil on canvas, 70 x 90 cm
Sébastien Bonin, Monfort, 2017, wood, wax and honey, 107 x 8 x 8 cm
Sébastien Bonin, Le cratère de météorite, 2017, oil on canvas, 50 x 40 cm
Sébastien Bonin, Le portrait d’Adolphe Hitler sans sa moustache, 2017, oil on canvas, 40 x 50 cm
Sébastien Bonin, 16 rue Gabriel Pérouse, 2017, straw and silver wire, 10 x 16 x 9 cm