SABINE PIGALLE: Timequakes, a Reinterpretation of Ancient Paintings

Sabine Pigalle is a visual artist, born in France in 1963. Most of her work concentrates on the reinterpretation of myths. Religious history, mythology, Flemish primitive painting and also mannerism provide both the varied sources of her inspiration and the raw materials for artistic explorations. Sabine Pigalle produces hybrid photographs in different series, mainly dedicated to the art of portraiture, that combine the contemporary with references to ancient art.

The Timequakes series expresses the chaos witnessed by the artist during the Japanese earthquake of March 2011. Transposing material destruction into a temporal pileup, Sabine Pigalle mingles painted court portraits from the late 15th, 16th and early 17th century with contemporary photographic portraits.

Brought into collision by the lights of the modern city, they expose the layering of different eras, like a collage.

The artist recycles and mixes her own photographs, originally shot and compiled as a source of future works, (paintings, portraits, and Tokyo lights). These hybrid portraits create a bridge between painting and photography, figuration and abstraction, past and modern art.

Timequakes, beyond an aesthetic and precious first dance, is treating of the temporal sedimentation of our cultural patrimony, misappropriation and lure.