Ça fait longtemps que je ne vous avais pas parlé d’art contemporain. Mon obsession actuelle est pour Travis Louie, qui peint des portraits si réalistes qu’on dirait de vieux Daguerréotypes. En plus, les portraits en question représentent parfois des personnes excentriques, parfois des créatures étranges, et, dans ma série préférée, des animaux anthropomorphisés!
C’est donc eux que je vous présente ici, ses « storied animals », ou animaux historiés. Ils ont l’air si vivants qu’on croirait qu’ils ont véritablement existé, et pour amplifier cette impression, l’artiste accompagne la plupart des portraits de la biographie du personnage.
Voici deux exemples, pris sur le site de la Gallerie Roq La rue de Seattle, où Travis Louie vient tout juste d’exposer :
« Sam was thought to be part rabbit, part wallaby, but very often he was referred to as that “rabbit”. He was very ill-tempered and prone to cussing. He also had the nickname of “Surly Sam”. They say when Sam was a small child, his whole family was eaten by wild dogs and being the only survivor of that ordeal made him mean and quick tempered. For a short time, he was a lawman in New Mexico, but he let his temperament get the better of him and was fired for excessive use of force on a public building. When gold was discovered in the North Dakota territory, Sam moved out there, became a goldminer, and spent the rest of his days living a more solitary existence taking out his aggressions with a pickaxe and shovel.”
« Harriet was a popular “entertainer” at an establishment in Port Royal, Jamaica. She possessed a remarkable ability to make people laugh while also insulting them. It was her skill at detecting a person’s deepest insecurities and making light of them that was so alluring. She attracted many would be suitors, which consisted mostly of sailors, thieves, and the occasional cutthroat. She made the best of her situation and longed to save enough money to retire to a farm in the Americas. Her plans changed when she met a privateer who used his letters of marque to acquire a vast fortune only to have it stolen by his first mate. She struck a deal with him to help lure his betrayer into a trap and share the recovered treasure. The scheme worked and she ended up living the rest of her life with him on a sugar plantation. »
J’aime à penser que Travis Louie invente l’histoire de ses personnages en amont, et que c’est ce qui donne tant de vie à ses portraits. Ils seraient alors de parfaits exemples de ce que l’on peut faire en écriture : étoffer le passé (back-story) de nos héros pour les rend plus crédibles. Même si le matériel ainsi créé n’est pas utilisé directement dans l’œuvre finale, on sentira, dès la première rencontre, qu’ils ne sont pas que de simples protagonistes en carton-pâte.