Torsos
Between figuration and abstraction, Benoît Luyckx only represented the human body in a fragmentary and rarely figurative manner. He focused his researches on movement and balance solely in the zone of the torso, source of breathing, therefore of all life, which is enough for the sculptor to transcend the inner and existential representation of a being. In the series of « Torsos », begun in 1989, sculpture frees itself from the body in order to tend towards « a modern interpretation of the artistic format in three dimensions (…) The representation becomes a presentation, even a presence » (Margitt Rowell).
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Torse Musical, 2009
White Greek Marble
52 x 36 x 15 cm
His black or blue torsos, which have taken on the synthetic shape of the trapeze, are also the basis of writings, those of the different textures that reveal the multiple aspects of the human being. Striated, smoothed out or engraved, the stone’s surface, on sight or in feeling, provides the sensation of a pelt, which tends to bring the human closer to his animal origin, thus conferring to Benoît Luyckx’s works their intemporality and their obvious sensuality.
“Torse Martial II”, 2005
blue grey stone
62 x 59 x 23 cm
Infinitely Blue Torso 144, 1993
Belgian Black Marble with blue pigment, composition of 144 elements measuring 16,5 x 15 x 4,5 cm, fixed on wood panel
Notes on “Infinitely Blue Torso 144”
An ephemeral consctruction, this torso is made up of one hundred and forty four little rectangular faces, sculpted in waves.
This notion of sculpture was a long time in the making, but was a great learning process. Methodically, I was faced with needing to think of the mechanisation of my gesture with the electric tool, and to go beyond the automatic te free myself in repetitive improvisation.
In this way I obtained a homogenous whole which was made up of various elements. I also became aware, through this experience, of the danger of automatisation as Cahrlie Chaplin had sent it up in “Modern Times”. But, luckily, in the case of my own creation, each imprint on the disk utilising the material, was driven with the pleasure of renewed spontaneity.
Little by little, this realization also interested me through the numering of the 144 elements making up the torso, on a framework of twelve by twelve. The numerological analysis of these figures intrigues me and especially through the approaches of the nine times rule, as well as other games adding and subtracting. I am still quite a novice in this field, but I am aware of magic secrets !
Finally, I dreamed up, in answer to this world of figures, the universe of words. Each of these elements then becomes the messenger of a thought, of a poetic image. I like to think that each of them will be dispersed, but will still remain a part of the original complex ; photographs remain as memetoes.
Benoît Luyckx