Author Archives: Isaac

About Isaac

Curious photographer and blogger. Likes sci-fi, retrogaming, 80s music and coffee.

César Baldaccini’s Directed Pink Expansion

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“Directed Pink Expansion,” César Baldaccini, 1967, Plastic bin and polyurethane.

I’m back in Stockholm. I decide to take a peek at Moderna Museet. As always, it’s hosting a nice mix of works by pop artists. On the floor of one room is “Directed Pink Expansion.” I do not gasp at its beauty; but the work is arresting in many senses. The entire spilled thing looks messy and sticky; it disturbs and amuses me. I like to have things in order; nice and neat and tidy. Call the cleaners ASAP! But I don’t move on. I become aware of association of thought and emotion unusual in the cool confines of a prestigious gallery.

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Even though I know the structure is made of hard polyurethane (for that is what the little sign says,) I want to poke this goo. An inner voice tells me that it is chewy, edible and maybe poisonous (or maybe all three!) The colour suggests caramel, tomato sauce or blood. Or maybe this is a bin of some awful all-invading toxic waste accidentally knocked over and now polluting the environment? How would the Ghostbusters deal with it?

César Baldaccini (1921-1998) remains a key figure in French contemporary sculpture. This is the guy who, in the early 1960s after visitng a car-crusher, famously exhibited cubes made of compressed cars at the Paris Exhibition. At the same time, he did a number of “expansions.” Wow! Fascinating links! Compression and expansion; pushing together and falling apart; filling and spilling; construction and destruction. Was César buzzing around the basic laws of physics about energy states and everything tending toward chaos? And why do I think of cleaners? Because what they do, in terms of physics, is expend energy to turn a tiny little bit of our chaos-destined universe back into order. I look again at Directed Pink Expansion. If universal laws of physics were in César’s head in 1967, there is something not quite right about the way the work is displayed here. It is on its own thin stage!

Directed Expansion

Photo copyright: César/BUS 2015

Only when I look on-line for other images of this work do I see how it is so much more powerful when displayed in direct contact with the floor. This allows the idea of a real spill, directed or not. If you come across it unexpectedly, you might just call the cleaners and then I bet good old César’s ghost would bust out a smile.

Les Voyageurs by Cedric Le Borgne

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It’s the last days of December. I head off across Geneva to work. I am very late. It is minus 6 degrees. The wintery morning sky is crystal clear. My tram squeaks and rattles its way through Place Bel Air. I wipe the condensation from the window. I notice some guy in the street taking a photograph of something up in the air. I crane my neck to see what has caught his attention. There is a figure made of chicken wire hanging off a cable. I go back to my newspaper.

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Much too late the same day, I am back on the tram crossing Place Bel Air again but in the opposite direction. A cold dry wind is whistling down the lake. Night has fallen. I look up wondering what has happened to chicken-wire man. I spot him. He has been dramatically and intensely illuminated. I feel as though a fuse has been lit inside me. I see only a beautiful floating-flying figure. I leap out of my seat and tumble out onto the pavement. I am mesmerised. I dig into my bag for a camera. This will be a photographic challenge. I then notice a second glowing figure sitting high on a nearby building. I have an extraordinary and uplifting feeling that, out of the dozens of people hurrying home, I am the only person of interest to these luminous dudes.

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I look around me. There is another flying man high over the river. His poise is elegant. He is in some kind of communication with the first guy. They both seem to be having such fun; maybe comparing notes how best to glide in the freezing air?

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I turn and look at the tram stop. Another watchful figure surveys the scene. She is pensive, static and emanates a lightness of being. There is no doubt that she could, at any moment, simply lift off to swoop and loop with her companions. I’m sure they don’t really take much notice of us. But then I think maybe they are watching over us but in rather a distracted, amused and casual way.

Meet “Les Voyageurs” by Cedric Le Borgne. This is a masterful creation that has indeed travelled to many corners of the world. The figures give the impression that, with the blink of an eye, they could simply flit off into the night never to be seen again. The whole work pulls me into fantasy land; it represents a presence from another world. Rarely has an urban work captured me like this.

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However, at a more objective level and what I admire most about this work is Le Borgne’s technical mastery of what must be an incredibly difficult medium to work with. How does one bend and mould chicken-wire to create figures that are not only anatomically correct but also adopt a credible and pleasing human posture for a non-human activity (i.e., flying)? Visually, they work. This is why they do a little transport job on my spirits and my sense of reality. If you are late night shopping in the next couple of weeks, take stroll down to Bel Air. Let your spirits be transformed!

“Les Voyageurs” is a part of Geneva’s first Lux Festival. Other installations can be seen in Place Longemalle and on Ile Rousseau. I look forward to the second Lux festival.

Paul Bonner’s Mutant Chronicles

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We’re on a road trip through Scandinavia. It is July. The sun is already high and hot as we breakfast in Copenhagen. Josi and Sari chat about what they will do and see today. I already have a plan. I am meeting an Englishman: and no ordinary Englishman! 

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Paul Bonner, the famous fantasy illustrator, has replied to my contact email and, to my surprise, has invited me to visit his home. “Why are you so excited to meet him?” asks my daughter who knows my passion for fantasy land (and who adores Littlest Pet Shop and My Little Pony.) “Well…” I explain “I feel I grew up with him. He shaped my interests, pastimes and imagination as he did for millions of people my age.”

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Paul greets me warmly. His handshake is firm. He is not the way-out character that I was expecting. Does this guy’s head really house such an incredible imagination? I register the privilege of entering his personal universe. I see his illustrations for real. He shows and then gives me a book of his work. Mind-blowing! Unsurprisingly, his studio is decked with Asian masks, animal skulls, anatomical posters and model dinosaurs.

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The painting Paul is working on is part of his Beowulf project. It is everything I would expect. A battle-hardened viking-dwarf with drawn sword enters an underground cavern with trepidation. Huge, slithery, spiney, wall-hanging monsters await him. Fantastic fantasy! This is why I wanted to meet Paul.

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A beautifully crafted, grotesque and mischievous goblin has pride of place in his studio. It stops me in my tracks. The attention to detail is just remarkable. It looks like it could spring to life at any moment!

Mutant Chronicles Rulebook

In the 1990s, a company called Target Games (now Paradox Interactive) was working on a series of games set in a dieselpunk, sci-fi universe called Mutant Chronicles. This was before the digital age; it involved a collectible card game (Doom Trooper), three board games (Siege of the Citadel, Fury of the Clansmen and Blood Berets), a tabletop miniature game (Warzone) and a role-playing game (Mutant Chronicles). The cards and booklets required illustrations. Paul, a trained illustrator, was offered the job.

Paul’s muscle-bound, weapon-wielding heroes brought the avatars of me and my friends to life. His imagination fed ours. He seeded and cultivated our fantasy worlds; we could envisage them, step into them and so play out our roles within them. We wanted to stay engaged. We had an insatiable appetite for new avatars. Did his visual depiction of these other worlds and the hundreds of unlikely protagonists ultimately influence the writers?

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Paul gives a modest shrug, but as an avid fan of Mutant Chronicles, I have no doubt of the two-way relationship between the writing and the illustration of the game. In fact, a reboot of the role-playing game is in the making, and British publisher Modiphius Entertainment has on Kickstarter promised that the 3rd edition of the “amazing techno-fantasy game” will “reveal never before seen parts of the Mutant Chronicles universe alongside the existing fantastic images by Paul Bonner.” I cannot wait to hear what my friends will say!

Paul’s remarkable career grew from a fascination for Tolkien and Scandinivian fables. No wonder then that he admits to his major influence: the paintings of John Bauer, Akseli Gallen-Kallela and Ivan Shishkin. But then after a holiday walking in Scandinavian forests (probably, I suspect, hoping to glimpse a troll for real) he simply decided to stay and make Copenhagen his base of operations. 

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Two hours slip by too quickly. I have made a new friend. In addition, I was able to offer something in return: I advise Paul on how to set up a Facebook page to share his work with fans and friends. Being the master illustrator he is, it is no surprise that his new page already has over eight thousand followers. I cannot help thinking that they would all love to step into Paul’s personal universe as well. I eventually leave and can see that Paul is keen to get back to work. But before you leave this post, take a look at some more of his incredible illustrations. Talk about skill and imagination!

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