Photographs are modelled after elaborate drawings by Luc Praet, who treats them as works of art and almost turns them into parchment. In his previous exhibition, he described the background of the ALTERED series, which will be broken down into numerous topics; in «Several Heads», he now focuses on the group portrait theme. His characters appear to be printed one on top of the other like tampons from head to toe, giving his images the appearance of endless repetition in keeping with his ongoing, neverending project.
In this new series, he assumes more than ever the appropriation, and the theme of transmission, of inspiration, questioning the relationship between artists and their predecessor. In a dozen large artworks, he invites reflection by playing both on the multiplication of bodies, like a game of fogged mirrors, in which we can hardly distinguish the contours, and on the marks that we make. The marks of our lives but also those of our own inspirations. but also those of our own inspirations. Isn’t art just a perso- nal restitution of what one has already seen, liked, perceived, assimilated?
What do we see? Apparitions, furtive silhouettes that seem to be identical and identical and without any particular sign to distinguish them from each other.However, each image gradually reveals small details while their singularity leaves room for multiple interpretations.The photographer proposes to the spectator to adjust his eye, to make his own focus, leaving to everybody the care to see there what they want. To be surprised by discovering not one, but several meanings. Each piece delivers a multiple story, a reflection of these silhouettes with moving contours that seem to leave the frame.
Luc Praet, instead of attempting a true representation, proposes his own interpretation and the interpretation that the spectator will attribute to the image. He invites us to an experience, which makes us reevaluate the position of the artist in relation to others and the purpose of this ges ture through the movement that the artist intends to create, exposes us to connect, but in horribly individual crowds. The works that affect and challenge the artist are embodied again in what he does, like ghosts inhabit families. Perhaps what escapes us is exactly what we try to imitate. In this essay, Luc Praet presents his own interpretation, both singular and universal.
Marie Lemeland