Berlinde De Bruyckere in Melbourne and Istanbul

Posted in Exhibitions / Openings / Signings, Hair & Fabric, Interviews, Medicine / Anatomy, Moving Images, Performance Art, Sculpture, Taxidermy & Grotesk by Suzanne on July 22nd, 2012 | BBC Wikipedia

019 by Berlinde De Bruyckere, 2007, wax, epoxy, metal, glass, wood, blankets, 293.5 x 517 x 77.5 cm, Collection Claude Berri © Andri Stadler- click to enlarge

I've often raved about Berlinde's art on here - in fact, her work even invades my everyday life as arty backdrop - so I'll spare you the superlatives but instead just want to make you aware that if you're Melbourne-based, you now have less than a week left to catch her fascinating We Are All Flesh show at the ACCA.

In case you were wondering: Yes, Berlinde did have a show with the same title three years ago at Hauser & Wirth in London but it seems that different and lots of newly commissioned works are on display in Melbourne.

If you're not yet familiar with her work, the 15-minute interview below offers a great introduction into her vision, process and technique but of course will neither replace the olfactory, visceral and epidermic qualities of the wax, skin, hair and fabrics she uses for her sculptures, nor explain the necrophiliac alchemistic ways in which she can turn branches into limbs, tree trunks into fresh corpses by masterfully applying an organic colour palette (pinks for skin, off-white for adipose tissue, greys/greens/blues for the circulatory system) onto wax with which she can control, halt and synthesise transformation, decay, death.

If you're not in Australia but in.. who knows.. Turkey, you can also catch her Wound show at the ARTER Space for Art in Istanbul until August 26 where she has inspired Vincent Dunoyer to dance Bruyckeresque choreographies in the exhibition space surrounded by her sculptures.

Details for the Istanbul show can be found here. The information below is for the ACCA exhibition.

On show: Jun 2 - Jul 29, 2012

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