Photo Journal Monday: Louis de Belle
Failed Dioramas (series), 2015 © Louis de Belle
Failed Dioramas
A crocodile basks between cardboard boxes, a horned lion stretches its snout in the air from under a tablecloth while an African ostrich stands under a lucky star.
Italian photographer Louis De Belle visited a private cabinet of curiosities where he documented a bizarre array of hunting trophies, haphazardly combined in all possible manners. The photographs were shot at the invitation of the collector in his Milanese apartment. However Louis de Belle decided not to rearrange the animals, but to work with the situation he found and to interpret them as "Failed dioramas”.
Failed Dioramas (series), 2015 © Louis de Belle
Failed Dioramas (series), 2015 © Louis de Belle
Louis De Belle’s images show the animals in strange and even grotesque relationships with the furnishings in the apartment. This unusual insight into a private collection documents, on the one hand, the failure of the collector to stage the trophies by the known rules of the art. Moreover the photographs can be interpreted in the tradition of the Tierstück, literally “animal piece”, which developed in the painting of the 16th century as a genre of still-life. Louis de Belle’s work brings this form of representation up to date in a contemporary context. As historical still-lives his photographs show the animals as part of arranged object ensembles. They reveal wonderfully framed dialogues, such as the one of the gazelle skull with the motorcycle helmet, in which the artist - with good humour - alludes to a comparative anatomy between the human and the animal.
Failed Dioramas was exhibited in the eponymous solo show at the Tieranatomisches Theatre der Humboldt Universität zu Berlin. An artist book, entirely printed on kraft paper, was published on the same occasion.
Failed Dioramas (series), 2015 © Louis de Belle
Failed Dioramas (series), 2015 © Louis de Belle
Failed Dioramas (series), 2015 © Louis de Belle
Failed Dioramas (series), 2015 © Louis de Belle
Failed Dioramas (series), 2015 © Louis de Belle
To view more of Louis’s work, visit his website here.
