Realism in art for a better, decent world

For those who are wondering, an artistic work is analyzed by first addressing these four criteria: aesthetics ( does it please the eye? Can it give emotion? ), originality ( is this already seen? Can it be identified with the work of one and same person or in other worlds, can one immediately recognize its creator ? ), meaningful ( does it express something? Can it challenge, provoke reflection? ), quality ( the materials are they traditional and sustainable? ). My concern is to respond as best as possible to these four aspects but also to others, particularly that of making my work available to everyone and for each interior.

Brief presentation

 

Origins, training, activities, various experiences and questonings allowed me to acquire a critical and sharp look. The approach is to attest goods and bad activities, to show without forgetting the hot and recurring topics of the news, through realistic constructions, events sometimes in everyday life, sometimes through this deeply ill, unjust, absurd society, so difficult for many, including alienations, contradictions and imbalances herald disaster. What are people doing during this time ! The whole of my work allows in a few views to get out of the daily scenes of this clutter, and for who wants to see it and think about it, to fly over what is the one-thought society.

 

I am at most in citizenship with the possibilities I have. Going beyond "earn money", conformism, ubiquitous whining and indignation, this is a contribution transmitted for a more harmonious world. This is particularly important for young people, who having taken the bandwagon did not choose all of this.

 

How to approach these representations if it is not through humor, derision or even the grotesque ? One way to exaggerate, to caricature real life situations is to prioritize the truth usually invisible to the eye over the decorative. The challenge, while subscribing to tradition, modernity and timelessness, is to innovate, to bring out of this nothingness, by its contents, its subjects and its lines, living, powerful and new figures of unexplored paths. Each new creation is added to and completes the series. A useful art to show values or to designate particularities of the system ! My works does not lead to discouragement nor bitterness or numbness but leads to action, which is why they are optimistic.

 

If the natives do not defend their heritage, who will it ? Each work is a facet of the generic theme "Scene of everyday life", stamped with my logo and has a name in Walloon from Basse-Sambre, region downstream of Charleroi ( Belgium ), in this ancestral language directly from Latin popular, major element of cultural identity, today fully rejected ( understand that without foundation, it is very difficult to build ourselves ).

 

Freedom is offered to everyone to interpret the main theme of each piece and to dissect the details, often winking, evoking secondary realities. A combination of a few pieces will strengthen a particular idea.

 

One don't create and testify for oneself. Defender of an art accessible to all, including financially, I chose for my three-dimensional sculptures the modeling, molding... complex procedure to own and which alone authorizes my work, and drawing of works in glazed ceramic, traditional material of the region, allowing taking care of it, and will support many generations. Each realization could also be available, in limited edition, as well as in a monumental volume, in bronze. I opted for screen printing with regard to graphics. There is unity in all these works, from the outset it is seen that they are generated by the same hands. These approaches require, in their technique, the replication of reproductions, but there are never really two parts the same : the small variations between the tests are not blunders, they are inherent in the manual processes of reproducing them, underlining thus the personality of each composition. This way of doing things means that my work is normally available at all times.

 

Here are some concrete expressions of the ambient dissatisfaction, but also of hopes. Life paths lead certain individuals to share these analyzes. They are given the opportunity here to surround themselves with symbolic objects in accordance with their convictions and why not, for example, disseminate them.

 

 Developed presentation

 

Art is not necessarily just decoration ! It must also be a witness of its time. What is this for a world ! You think you're free ? And yet, you are stuck in the straitjacket left by previous generations. Apart from a few minor choices, it is others who decide on your life... which could be considerably different from the one you planned.

 

Whereas I come from a humble background, by chance I was born at a place and time when we could benefit from plenty of material opportunities, including evening ( or staggered hours ) adult-education classes and a certain permissiveness of expression. These prerequisites were essential for my progression and the emergence of what follows below. Note that these are generalities, otherwise criticism is impossible : individually, you can hold a completely different view, in direct opposition to the clichés I use.

 

Based on a sheer observation of my surroundings, I venture to describe to you, to illustrate, without resentment or complacency for anyone in particular, the feelings evoked by scenes I have witnessed since my early youth, not wanting to shock but rather to promote a shared viewpoint. By representing numerous everyday scenes in my works I wish to show, in a rational way and for everyone’s best interest, a way out of this mess, this imbroglio, … this profit-making, buying-and-selling centered society that we live in. Through realistic compositions I want to illustrate existing events, on everyday life level but also on a more societal point of view : highlight the failings of our “ civilization ”. Our “ world ” is so often absurd, iniquitous, uninhabitable for many people and overpopulated. Indeed, population has tripled since my birth, rising from 2.5 to 7.5 billion inhabitants. Hence, encouraging human reproduction is an absurdity. Humankind is at risk of provoking its own disappearance. Whilst every child should benefit equally from access to education, conversely, pollution is caused by over-consumption of energy and resources, by travelling and by outsourcing, by the emergence of new needs, and by rich countries’ over-consumption and wastage. They undermine the planet’s natural balance and “ devour ” the earth. Sustainable development is incompatible with international capitalism as we know it today. Letting people believe otherwise is a deception, a fraud. So-called “ green ” energy is presented as the universal panacea, whereas its production and use create more pollution.

 

People everywhere share the same blood, the same mind. What separates them, divides them, isolates them ( if we go on reproducing and do not integrate with each other ), are mainly wealth, culture, beliefs but also societal strata, skin color, age, gender, languages... School, education should lead to emancipation, but through the diplomas it awards, it ultimately reclassifies the students into the social classes they were born in and stresses the disparities.

 

It is an atmosphere of profound impotence that prevails.

 

For some people, and not only the destitute, the ultimate purpose of life is survival. Full of resentment, demoralized, humiliated, frustrated ( and this is understandable ), they cannot help dreaming of living like the rich. Their customary expectation doesn’t extend beyond getting menial work in order to survive. They don’t have any insight into what causes their misfortune. Groggy, stunned, how could they possibly reflect on the despised community when they can’t even manage to escape from it themselves ? Although....

 

Many are in a permanent rat-race, always in a hurry, consumed by their professional occupations, their family and/or emotional encounters, consumption related mainly to fashion and food, their possessions, the demands of daily life ( cooking, cleaning and washing, home maintenance... ) and its worries, maintenance or even physical and/or spiritual addictions, various entertainments ( computer, social networks, television, shows, commercial festivals, holidays.... ), senseless and/or stupid challenges... but also, for the more demanding, reading, artistic and cultural leisure activities... Exhausted, passive, depressed although relieved to have an income to repay their loans but feeling insecure about the future, paying in addition for the social contributions taken directly from their income, they do not have nor do they want to make any additional contribution to the collective, whatever it might be. They see too many lazy, profiteers, irresponsible. And with all the more aggressiveness if they come from abroad.

 

A minority of the wealthy prosper in their leisure and free time. They tell themselves that it is not their responsibility to change the system ; better still, they defend it tooth and nail because they benefit from it and they are the winners, the beneficiaries. These wealthy people are joined by the majority of wealthy retirees. The specific but common purpose of these wealthy individuals is mainly to want to take full advantage of it in a life devoid of meaning, in decrepitude and while waiting for physical death. “ After me, the flies ! ” The person who retains a modicum of empathy knows that he or she is behaving incorrectly and can be nothing other than very troubled in the depths of his soul by his or her own superficiality, a subject that it is taboo to broach with them.

 

The mass of humankind belongs to these groups, which, in addition to what is described above, are relentlessly pursued, conditioned and under the influence of commercial advertising that urges them to buy continuously. They are also surrounded by fake nirvanas ( drugs, medicines, other dependencies... ). The result ? Persistent dissatisfaction, selfishness, hypocrisy, resignation, disillusionment, sometimes complete breakdown prevail and for want of something better, the disenchanted and phony existence that results from this forces them to cling on in the hope of a better future : the one who gives in to all this will not rise again, clinging to his ( her ) convictions through a lack of in-depth analysis of their situation.

 

Despite this, apart from all those who primarily want to get rich and/or enjoy material pleasures, there exists a, a limited number of people on the margin comprising all social classes, enlightened and animated by goodwill, passion, altruism, idealism, compassion. These people graciously devote themselves to organizations and volunteering of all kinds. These public-spirited acts should be freely encouraged, applauded. However, I exclude from this acts of charity, which should certainly be replaced by the right to public assistance when it is properly justified. So let us applaud what these people do : it is undeniably superior to the behavior of those who, while benefiting from the services offered, do nothing or resort to begging. The involvement of these generous people makes the world a kinder, better place, and yet they divert attention from the heart of the problem and do not call the status-quo into question in any way. On the contrary, their dedication, sometimes involving a real battle, is absorbed, diluted into this distressing system in which we are immersed and ultimately it contributes to its perpetuation.

 

States are in debt and whilst they should be promoting cooperation, their irresponsibility deserves an equal share of the blame. For example, individually, they adopt regulations to attract investment, to draw in the wealthy... which greatly promotes international tax evasion, a possible springboard for fraud.

 

Every day that passes on earth is the exact sum of what all individuals have done, not done, allowed to happen. Contradictions, indifference, obscurantism, alienation and imbalances pave the way for disaster.

 

The institutions perpetuate all these shortcomings, these aberrations, with a ) a police force ( which has always " done its job " with zeal in a system of routine checks ( road and other ) and in the way they deal with demonstrators... On the other hand, major delinquency, that of white collar workers, is inefficient ) ; b ) an army ( superfluous in a benevolent civilization ), c ) judges ( who certainly enforce the letter and the spirit of the law, there is no doubt about it ; nevertheless, their opinion is essentially shaped by the their origins and life experiences, and it is with this state of mind that decisions are taken ) and d ) various other civil servants, usually having no idea of the profitability required by a boss in the real world, who are reassured and motivated by their status, while those who pay them, who should logically be the primary beneficiaries of all this, do not benefit from it at all. However, the public and private sectors meet when it comes to, among other examples, those who are awarded their positions because of the people they know or because of family connections. If they take up a position of senior management, they will have authority over people without necessarily having the right skills….. We are then faced with a classic case : the incompetent leader who, to keep his power, is authoritarian, isolates himself in his tower and uses the stick. Necessity, social security and its redistribution, the availability of cheap products from countries where workers are intensively exploited, and religions, through their passivity, play a major role in preserving this dysfunctionality, where every right-thinking person, despite these clusters of inconsistencies, takes himself infinitely seriously.

 

The media should be a counter-balancing force par excellence, but in reality, in the main, they amuse, entertain, that is to say dumb down their audience. Every journalist is trapped in complacency, at his or her level of awareness and self-censorship. This is explained by the need to ensure his ( her ) livelihood. But in doing so, he ( she ) strangles, gags, violates the truth and the freedom of expression, especially of the very people whose stated views should be reported. Those who are paid by the article, freelance as we say these days, open the door to subjectivity ; they leave out anything that would be upsetting and opinions that risk rocking the boat. To change this, the only alternative is for the individual whose mission is to investigate in order to propose objective information to have sufficient professional resources and to benefit from a contract that protects him/her more than government personnel.

 

It is a headlong rush towards the future : according to convenient and widespread opinion, science and technology will eventually overcome the problems encountered, whereas it is they and the over-consumed energy and raw materials that have led us there... for each new development, secondary problems arise ! It is also crucial to strengthen and increase the rules in the field of ethics ( currently everything that is not prohibited is accepted, whereas the opposite should be the case ) where major abuses are constantly taking place in order to make money.

 

The property-owning classes are, to this day, alone in history in successfully bringing about their revolution, that is, to drive out forever those former ignominious regimes whose power was held jointly by the nobility and the clergy. To safeguard their privileges and prevent the people ( those who are the victims ) from getting their act together, these new masters responded in their time-honoured fashion, through the unrestrained exploitation of valuable natural resources and by deskilling work into tedious repetition... giving opulence to some at the cost of brutality, abuse inflicted on others. By their choice, we are sustainably in a environment where warning lights are flashing bright red everywhere and for which we are highly likely to expire prematurely. This is no longer sustainable for abused and despoiled populations, for the risks of conflict involved, or for the planet's capacities. This model of exploiters is coming to an end and will disappear because of its contradictions and baseness, it is only a matter of time... it is still necessary to react before it is too late. There is an obligation to transform man, so that he can overcome the unsustainable and survive into the future ! Clearly, it is imperative to adapt lifestyles, not as at present by giving everyone the choice to decide individually but by imposing it on themselves collectively. This will raise the question of equity : how to demand efforts from everybody when some would continue in opulence to consume two, ten, one hundred, one thousand... times more than others? Before any disaster( s ), calamity( ies ), conflict( s ), society must metamorphose into modernity, intelligently, with universal precepts and values, gradually and radically. In this period beset by dangers, as history teaches us, we must guard against being diverted from our course by the combined efforts of those in power, towards all kinds of wars, with their armaments, their victims, their pain, their looting and shortages, particularly of food.... The solution? It is essential to regularize, to reverse population growth and whilst respecting the world’s fauna ( those in the wild, of course, by breaking our close relationships with our domesticated, enslaved and satiated companions, and by showing compassion with a continuous reduction in the number of farm animals that we consume ), respecting the flora and the earth, to give everyone the opportunity to ensure, through their involvement, their security of existence and their participation in the community. Responsible, dignified and appropriate work for everyone throughout their lives must be a right and fundamentally a duty. An optimal individual freedom in the respect of the laws, the first evidence being to benefit from the simple and abundant pleasures offered by nature... that it is necessary to respect when writing your rights.

 

The large number of workers, wherever they are, must take responsibility and free themselves, by their own actions and for their own benefit, of course, but also so that another world can emerge. We are still, productivism less, to the " Workers of the world, unite ! " by Karl Marx. In particular, they must gradually take ownership and jointly manage sectors such as social security, agribusiness ( for : biodiversity, protecting against poisoning and food shortages ) and why not the media, education..? It is obvious that young people must be involved : they are the ones whose lives have just begun and who are most concerned by the future. Injustice is, finally, what this is all about ; it is the source of most tensions and misfortunes, and, if we are to take the first steps towards true fraternity, it must be made to disappear through legislation, hand-in-hand with collective morality. This is undoubtedly a utopian idea but you have to think about it in order to make it happen !

 

For a more harmonious world

 responsible, just and fraternal

 

I have adopted as the generic title of my work " Saynètes de la vie de tous les jours " ( Sketches of everyday life ). How to approach these descriptions if not through humor, derision or even grotesque? One way to exaggerate, to caricature real life situations is to prioritize the real that is usually invisible to the eye. But what can be mentioned simply is complex to find, it is necessary to be creative ! The challenge is to innovate, to bring out of the void unexplored paths, through its contents, its subjects and its lines, powerful, timeless and original figures. Everyone is free to interpret the main theme of each creation and to dissect the details, often mischievous prank, evoking secondary realities. A committed art, an art useful to show values or to display the particularities of the capitalist market economy system, which sees only commodities and crushes everything : its absolute quest for profit, its standardization ( for example, in an unexpected field, traditions are lost : Santa Claus and Halloween supplant Saint Nicolas, his less kind companion “ Père Fouettard ” and masquerades... ), its moral misery, its widespread but omnipresent violence... its principles of salami-slicing and control organized for and by political representation ( the qualities necessary to manage the city are distinct and foreign to what allows the selection of the candidate and it follows that there is no real guarantee that the elected representative makes a sense of the common good or the skills to exercise his or her function ; an agent who, far from an ideal, makes it his or her job to earn income ; like his or her voters, he or she is a prisoner of the system but maintains it globally with his or her peers ( whose totality is absolutely not representative of the components of the population ), because of their short-term decisions that prevent them from solving global challenges... The achievement of universal suffrage was probably the main demand of our predecessors but the few arguments presented above and which could be accompanied by many others ( for example, that without political formation, voters express themselves on some impressions, emotions to choose their leaders, La Fontaine would probably have selected " Sheep choosing their dogs " to illustrate this situation ) demonstrate that in use " representative " democracy is a decoy and has failed. It is essential and urgent to improve it greatly, including by introducing other forms. The system has been frozen for a long time and elected officials should not be expected to reform it... there is a need for popular consultations to obtain it ), an organization that the unions ( caught up by corporatism and whose capital and recurrent demand is to increase purchasing power ) have resumed. These delegates, who are supposed to represent the community but whose absence is constantly verified by grassroots initiatives, thus promote the suffocation of these movements and immobility.

 

You don't create for yourself. Art, in our time, must be accessible to everyone, including the destitute who are interested in it ! That's why, on the one hand, I opted for silkscreen printing when it comes to graphics. And on the other hand, I have chosen the usual bronze procedure, modelling, molding, but I propose low-cost prints, enamelled ceramic statuettes ( made from slip, which can, with care, be preserved for centuries ). Metal statues obtained by the lost wax process are, however, achievable in limited editions.

 

These approaches require, in their respective techniques, the replication of many works, but there are never two strictly the same : the small variations between proofs are not clumsiness, they are inherent in manual practices of reproducing them, thus underlining the personality of all compositions.

 

Each work is stamped with my logo ( the drawing also has the wording " JS dèl Basse-Sambre ", JS my initials and the name of the region crossed by the Sambre, downstream from Charleroi and upstream from Namur ( Wallonia - Belgium ) ) and includes a name in regional Walloon ( beyond the defense of the heritage, this brings a certain originality, enigma and mystery ). This ancestral language, which comes directly from popular Latin, a major element of local cultural identity, is now, like a multitude of local languages, completely abandoned because of globalization and its roads. The Basse-Sambre was one of the most prosperous regions in the world and is now deindustrialized ; in addition to that, its name, like its local language, is now neglected... there is a duty to defend. Let us remember that French is already a borrowed language. That being said, it goes without saying that the existence of an international language allows direct communication throughout the world, but we regret that it is the language of merchants that is essential.

 

Beyond conformity, incessant whining and indignation, my production is a contribution transmitted for a better world. This is essential for the next generation, which, formatted and chained, has not chosen all this, and, having taken the train in motion, must get out of its lethargy, its drowsiness, in the face of the habit and laissez-faire of most of those who precede them. My images do not lead to despair or numbness but generate critical thinking, action, which is why they are optimistic. These are therefore concrete expressions of the prevailing discontent, but also of hopes.

 

Life courses lead individuals to share these analyses, to get involved and to fight where they are, the people being sovereign, for a more participatory democracy. This is an opportunity for them to facilitate the propagation of their ideas by having symbolic objects at their disposal. And why not, if you have the experience, promote, disseminate some of my work to a wide audience....

 

Have a good visit of this virtual gallery !

 

 

Constructive and sufficient feedback from letters could encourage me to set up a blog to inform of concepts about my new proposals.

 

 

Peregrinations, wanderings and progress

Short biography

 

I have several recognitions ( after the Communal Primary School of Falisolle, Charleroi, Auvelais, the industrial teaching of Falisolle, Tamines, Châtelet, Fosses, Namur ) including a diploma of higher education of the 1st degree... distinctions generally obtained in the evening class, i. e. after working hours.

 

For decades, I worked in the private sector in Auvelais, where I held responsibilities for technical staff and had many possibilities of originality of all kinds for automatic production lines where many functions were at the tip of my pencil. Conscientious and determined, following the ideas contained in " The Charter of Quaregnon " and the " Discourse to the Youth of Jaurès ", I was given a large degree of autonomy, successively going from worker to employee and then to manager.

 

Experiences notably during 6 years and until 1990 at my place of residence in Franière ( entity of Floreffe, 6,600 inhabitants then ) with multiple responsibilities at the Cultural Centre and as an advisor to the public social assistance center ( what was once called " Bureau de bienfaisance " or " La table des pauvres " ).

 

In 1995 with my daughter ( at that time instructor of the Provincial School, at the Harzée Woods Playground in Falisolle, then she published the Glossary of Arsimont - Contribution to the Walloon language in Basse-Sambre ( which is available for consultation and download on this site, 313 pages ) ), we create a character to form a carnival group of Walloon folk traditions ( functioning, in local language, costumes, songs, various activities... ), the Carnival holding by definition a societal critique. It is my contribution to Fârjole, Falisolle, the place where my parents, my childhood and adolescence lived. Many have invested themselves in it but, in order for it to continue, I was forced to assume, to be the backbone of this group ( which today continues ) during its first 13 years of existence... and again the following few years for occasional events.

 

In 2007, I give a 286-page document to 10 people ( including the one entitled " Fonctionnement del Soce dès Tètâr di Fârjole - Sambreville en Basse-Sambre ", 55 pages that are visible and can be copy on this site, established entirely by my hand following countless meetings and feedback on what we were doing ). It is always possible to perpetuate this exceptional event of a week of masquerades in Falisolle... everything is described, only the spark is missing to provoke the infatuation of the population.

 

From a very young age, I became interested in the visual arts : in 1961, at the age of 12, I decided to register and take drawing classes on my own. For the anecdote and to understand my determination, I went there on foot, which required 30 minutes of intensive walking both ways. I did not understand the lightness of the content of the works of the adults I saw there, of this world so frequently ignoble which has not really changed since. From this date comes, guiding my steps, my awareness, my disagreement, my contestation and my dynamism to try to show the occult, the repressed.

 

In total, I followed a ten-year course of evening classes in the Academies of Fine Arts, often accompanied by art history : in Tamines ( Alix Dufaux ), Châtelet ( Roland Dubois and Brigitte Debay ) and then in Namur ( Luc d’Haegeleer ) in drawing, sculpture and silkscreen printing.

 

The academy, let us remember, imposes to do with the hand what the eye sees but above all it gives emulation by rubbing shoulders with the demands and achievements of others. Once that acquired, the work that follows is never clumsy but wished. In particular, I have the knowledge and experience of working with bronze, the ultimate in classical sculpture, whose operations I have already carried out in full. I was recognized in this in 1990 by the certificate of graduation of the Academy of Fine Arts of Châtelet.

 

My characters are regularly presented naked, this is to : take into consideration Greek, Roman, classical, academic traditions ; gain in timelessness because clothes mark an era ; show this biped that is the naked human being, because, in truth, he only owns witch himself and is relatively helpless, vulnerable, in front of events.

 

Ignoring those who magnify, idealize, exalt and stimulate the hard work of workers, I will cite as examples of references : Jacques Callot, Honoré Daumier, Otto Dix, James Ensor, Francisco Goya, George Grosz, Frans Masereel, Félicien Rops... For contemporaries, I find myself particularly among press illustrators and humorists. We can count a lot of writers dealing with these subjects, but the problem with the book is that people read little or no and that a ( re )closed book is not relevant at all. On the contrary, the object is permanently visible and recalls by its presence.

 

I write with big intensity to : define my constructions and, in doing so, deepen my observations, which requires me to persevere in my approach, that of brushing the present by braving what could disturb... the uncertainty is moreover total from the beginning as to its echo ; to contribute to convince and bring some others on this insufficiently used path.

 

On the road as long as I have the motivation, the possibilities, the time and the vigor...

 

                                                                    JS, january 2019