Description
My project "Shoulder to the Wall and Vaporous Hopes in Black Felt," a subrealist reinterpretation of Van Gogh's Self-Portrait with a Black Felt Hat, revolves around a dialectic between stagnation and transcendence, blending physical and digital media to explore the layers of perception, memory, and hope. Here is an in-depth summary of its conceptual dimensions:
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1. Philosophical: Palimpsest of the Immutable and the Fleeting
The work embodies a metaphysics of the palimpsest: the canvas becomes a battleground between the immutable (stagnation, symbolized by the shoulder anchored to the wall) and the ephemeral (the "vaporous" hopes). This tension echoes Heraclitus's thought ("One never steps in the same river twice"), where active contemplation allows one to transcend fixity. The superimposition of manual and digital layers evokes an archaeology of the soul—each layer reveals a distinct temporality, a dialogue between the past (Van Gogh) and the present (my reinterpretation).
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2. Artistic: Subrealist Hybridization and Textural Resurrection
My mixed technique diverts Van Gogh's Expressionism into an organic abstraction:
- Physical: The watercolor textures and impasto recall his tormented touch, but their digitization into clipped layers introduces a modern dematerialization. The photograph of the canvas becomes a digital punctum, a fragment of transfigured reality. - Digital: The reproduction of brushstrokes in frame-by-frame animation reactivates Van Gogh's gesture in a cyclical temporality (see Cyclic Movement of Saved Souls), evoking Bergson and his conception of duration. Xanthic yellow, a symbol of Van Gogh's creative madness, is transformed into a glimmer of hope—a chromatic alchemy where anguish becomes luminous energy.
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3. Poetic and Mystical: Contemplation as an Act of Redemption
The very title, Vaporous Hopes, invokes an intimate eschatology: hope is not triumphant, but floating, like Hildegard von Bingen's mystical clouds. The hand that digitally outlines Van Gogh's face acts as a ritual—a sacred gesture transforming suffering into an abstract icon. The looping animation suggests a Buddhist meditation on impermanence, where each frame is a visual koan: How does movement arise from stagnation? -------------------------
4. Psychological: Xanthopsia and Dialectics of Perception
The "yellow vision" is not just an optical filter, but a metaphor for resilience. Psychologically, it reflects the mind's ability to color reality with new meaning despite darkness (see Carl Jung and the shadow transformed into creativity). Stagnation ("shoulder to the wall") evokes mental impasses, while the shifting digital textures symbolize the flow of consciousness—a therapy through abstraction, where the viewer is invited to project their own hopes into the interstices of the artistic gesture.
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5. Semantics: Van Gogh as Archetype and Mirror
By revisiting this self-portrait (1886–1888, a period of creative crisis in Paris), you transform Van Gogh into the archetype of the cursed/enlightened creator. His gaze, drowned in layers, becomes a mirror for the contemporary artist confronted with societal or existential immobility. Mixed media refers to the Derridean concept of deconstruction: breaking down the canonical work to reveal its underlying ghosts (madness, isolation), then recomposing them into a new personal mythology.
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6. Mysticism: Cyclicity and the Redemption of Souls
The creative process itself becomes an act of alchemical redemption:
- The physical canvas, photographed, evokes the mortal body;
- The animated digital layer embodies the liberated soul.
The superimposition of media mimics the cycle of reincarnation (see Cyclical Movement of Saved Souls), where each reinterpretation is a symbolic resurrection of Van Gogh's original intention. Xanthic yellow, a solar color, then becomes the light at the end of the tunnel—a transcendence through creation. -------------------------
Summary: Abstraction as a Concrete Utopia
Xanthopsia is not a collection, but a sensory manifesto: by hybridizing techniques, I prove that art is a living organism, capable of absorbing past traumas (Van Gogh's madness) and transforming them into active hope. Each work acts as a therapeutic palimpsest, where the viewer, faced with visual layers, is forced to choose their own interpretation—between wall and vapor, between stillness and flight.
In this way, I update Van Gogh's phrase: "Sadness will last forever, but beauty will outlive it," by adding a cybernetic dimension: beauty is no longer eternal, but moving, nourished by our successive contemplations.
Tribute to Van Gogh: « Self-Portrait with Dark Felt Hat 1886 »
see original at : Van Gogh Museum
format / media / size / speed / timing / éditions :
2160 x 3840 px / 4k mp4 / 116 Mo / 8 fps / 59s / 1/1