We are presented with a concrete vertical wall offering a view from above of various sculptural elements. They represent a theatrical scene, a filmic sequence: a reclining nude on a daybed, a richly pleated and twisted sheet and a pair of elegant slippers. There isn’t more of a ‘story’; every form of symbolism is absent, let alone a social or political statement. What there is to see is what it is. It is the realistic depiction of a reality based on observation. Nevertheless, despite the absence of references, a rich Western culture is implicit. The accurate reproduction of Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona Daybed, the physiognomy of the middle-aged model and her well-kept hair, the pearl earrings and necklace, the rich drapery and the elegant French slippers locate everything we see in well-to-do bourgeois surroundings. It is also here that we have to locate the creation of the motif (reclining nude): the rich bourgeoise of the Italian renaissance.

Despite every attempt to give the motif at least a symbolic meaning of vanity and mortality - or more recently, to interpret the depiction of female nudity as an expression of male domination in respect of the sexualised female - it is, nevertheless, the spatial composition, the rendering of sculptural form and the expressive power of the material, texture and colour that are actually the subject of the art work. There is, undoubtedly, an erotic component to the representation of the human body here, the excess of folds in the sheet or how the shoes are cherished almost as a fetish, but just accept that as one of the most important drives of how humans feel and act. After all, they play, in the background, a role in everything we do. Focussing on it would demonstrate a lack of understanding of the artistic practice, in my opinion.

Lifesize and lifelike, the wooden sculptures are the result of keen observation. It is not imagination that is being expressed here, but the transformation of reality into a medium which isn’t, i.e., a reality that isn’t real. Leather, skin, pearl and fabric are translated one by one into a medium that is entirely unrelated to them. Thick oak planks are glued together to create the masses out of which the sculptures are cut. The artist removes every trace of physical presence with an obsessive precision. Finally, the elements are stained black, so that the sculptures, in a manner of speaking, ‘turn inwards’, and a thin layer of wax is applied so that they are protected from dust and touch.

Thanks to the sculptural transformation, the scene comes to a halt. From now on, in the same way that the sculptor took the time to observe, analyse and translate every aspect of reality, each viewer can now consider the art work extensively and repeatedly. In this respect, the mimetic object differs from that of which an imitation has been made: the image offers access to a reality that would otherwise escape us.