The act of gesture with the wind. And in that, there is pleasure
Sculpture/installation. Steel, cloth, wax.
To lose the face is to lose a means by which others identify you, to become alien, unfamiliar. “Because, you know, the face is identity a Therapeutic tells Nastassja Martin (b.1986, anthropologist) after she was facially disabled by a bear in Siberia. In the aftermath of the brutal encounter, the author of In the Eye of the Wild description itself as an indigenous and uncertain form.
On April 28, 1958, Klein presented an exhibition at the Iris Clert Gallery in Paris—an entirely empty, whitewashed space. There was nothing on display, the absence was the artwork. It invited imagination, projection, and a heightened awareness of space itself. Similarly to how the loss of facial features reveals the face’s deep role in recognition and identity, Yves Klein’s Le Vide (The Void) explores how absence can become a powerful presence. Albert Camus captured this paradox by writing in the guestbook, “avec le vide, les pleins pouvoirs” (with the void, full powers). What could be more liberating and more daunting for a creative mind than an empty space?
Photo credits: Sisters Lumière/ @sisters_lumiere
