Hong Kong art gallery Art Supermarket is pleased to present Alter Ego (subtitle Alias), a solo exhibition of works selected from French artist Haude Bernabé. Alter Ego comes from the sentence “Je est un autre” from Arthur Rimbaud, which means the Self is Other, the Self is Another. And this exhibition will take us into the journey of finding your inner self in this culture and languages intertwined society.
Alter Ego is a quotation from Arthur Rimbaud, which can be interpreted as our selves are separated from our inner selves. People today are used to find their identity through their personal belongings which are assigned by the religious adherence, political affiliation and other social groups. But these belongings cannot represent the whole selves. What really matters is the change.
In this exhibition, Haude will present two different sculptures to illustrate the conceivable selves and ignored selves. One is metal portraits that look like masks. And the other is a 3D printed sculptures with head replaced by other objects like a house and a cage. Works on paper (ink) will also be presented during the exhibition to reinforce the concept.
Born in 1963 in Brest, Haude Bernabé lives and works in Paris. Beyond the fact her works are part of many private collections in France and abroad, including the Cérès Franco contemporary art collection in Montolieu. What strikes through her works as a sculptor is its strength, almost as a “force majeur” of creation. Made of raw metal, cut, welded, tortured, as mixed, Haude Bernabé’s sculptures have this prominent presence of primal scream, scream behind which the mathematical composure is never far. Rushing into labeling that universe of her primitive art would be damageable to her highly personal approach without concession to trends or fashion. A universe in which the intuitive intelligence and the constructivist mindset mingle closely. Haude Bernabé’s work rises way beyond the divisions and categories in a current artistic landscape where cosmetic outweighs the power of the Ideas. A landscape where the "Fashionable" of apprentices Jeff Koons becomes a standard to comply with.
Haude Bernabé’s work reminds us that beyond fads and "concept artists”, sculpture, Art is a matter of conviction, vision and emotion, which is to be sometimes as beautiful as a spring day, sometimes tortured, powerful as a storm over the sea and that these different states compose the meaning of it.