July 7th, 2023:
In French, the word "lamentable" is both a pejorative adjective and an allusion to complaints. The English word "lamentation" shares its root, referring to expressions of sorrow, grief, generic discontent. Benjamin Husson's artworks might be lamentable in all of these ways. Pepper mirrors this multiplicity. It is an ingredient, a tool for professional criers, a food pejoration for some. With pepper, one finds a violence that is not gratuitous, reminiscent of those scenes of animal rape and slaughter depicted in Ensor's La Gourmandise: men eat and puke to no limit while, at their back, a painting shows the suffering of pigs that'll end on their plate. A significant cycle.
Artworks by Benjamin Husson and James Ensor,
Inaugural event of Gauli Zitter.
Fountain/ directed ambiguous politeness
2023
Steel, glass
76 x 97 x 171 cm
Pit stop/ layered highway
2023
Oak wood, steel
270 x 70 x 115 cm
Some ambitions are fernet-ing days, more than others
2023
Brass casts, varnished lizard tail, tanned fish skin, tobacco leaves, rabbit-skin glue, silver, steel, aluminium, tin
34 x 31 x 139 cm
Legacy, chakra
2023
Copper, lead, tin
95 x 13 cm
+ Waldo Pardon, performing with reading a selection of classical and contemporary «stage whispers» to the audience while serving cocktails. These historical theatrical asides, in this context, sounded like rumors spread over potential visitors.
