Produced by the artist in collaboration with J.Hopenstand, 2021
Navy and Red bull-calf leather with size adjustable belt loops
Belt dimensions: 7.7 x 45 x 18 cm | 3 x 17.7 x 7 in
Bronze plated buckle with patinated palladium
Limited edition of 20 pieces
Each buckle is numbered and signed with custom box, and CoA
Production time is 6 weeks from order date. Copper finish buckle and Brown/Black belt also so available upon request. Please write to storeny@perrotin.com for additional information.
From the collaborator:
Flemish sculptor Johan Creten partners with J.Hopenstand to create a new buckle design: “Die Sonne die Sunde, 2021” from the Art to Wear series.
Johan Creten has been an influential figure in altering the perception of ceramics within the sphere of contemporary art. Even though he was trained as a painter, he quickly turned to ceramic and bronze as his primary materials. The Flemish sculptor is one of the pioneers of the revival of this material in contemporary art. His goal is to express a wide range of ideas with this material in order to trigger political and social thoughts through his work that remains deeply rooted in everyday life. Creten crafts unsettling works whose contorted shapes and intricate surfaces explore heady themes like sexuality or social injustice. His colorfully glazed and edgy ceramic works appear to be slowly hemorrhaging, riddled with imperfections, and they almost defy the static nature of objects in space. Creative catalysts that change intention and aspect over time; these pieces seem to be on the verge of decay, about to turn into shadows of their former selves.
Burdening his works with blemishes, Creten faces the inevitable with honesty. But he also produces monumental sculptures in bronze; their size and material strength are as overwhelming as the intrusive intimacy of his smallest ceramic gestures. Once installed, these objects – displayed on plinths or mounted on walls – are meant to be observed from specific vantage points that force viewers to slow down and engage with the piece of art.
Together with J.Hopenstand, the Belgian artist explores new boundaries. Johan Creten loves to play with different textures and scales, conflating both the human and the monumental, the delicate and the strong, the refined and the crude in the same space. For “Die Sonne die Sunde”, he drew his inspiration from his Glory series that links beauty to sexuality and decor.
With Johan Creten, there are not seven sins anymore, but an infinite and unlimited number of them. Creten’s sculptures have nothing to do with moral or sanction, guillotine or censorship; they rather speak of sins, of life that merge desire and pain, hope and misery, luxury and anger, love and death, Eros and Thanatos.