Etienne Chambaud Undercuts, 2012
Plains zebra hide stretched on canvas
143 x 121 x 2,5 cm
The series of unique works summarily entitled Contre-Dépouilles (Undercuts) consists of animal skins stretched on portrait size frames. The fur-side is turned inside. Thus the animal’s distinctive markings remain hidden to the viewer. Instead the near monochromatic surface may appear reminiscent of an abstract painting at first glance.
The title refers as much to the range of craftsmanship and technical know-how required in the preparation of a hide (tracking, hunting, taxidermy, tanning) as it does to the vocabulary of classical sculpture, in which an element in the round is called Contre-Dépouilles when it requires the assembly of multiple casts, thus concealing a series of cuts in the image of its whole.
The title refers as much to the range of craftsmanship and technical know-how required in the preparation of a hide (tracking, hunting, taxidermy, tanning) as it does to the vocabulary of classical sculpture, in which an element in the round is called Contre-Dépouilles when it requires the assembly of multiple casts, thus concealing a series of cuts in the image of its whole.
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