« I want to show how helpless a body can be, which is nothing to be afraid of – it can be something beautiful. »
Berlinde De Bruyckere
Berlinde De Bruyckere
Later her sculptural works incorporated wax bodies covered in wool. Berlinde De Bruyckere went on to deploy the bodies of horses in works that create a startling and disturbing tension between form and matter. The artist's preoccupation with the abject places her work within the contexts of the Bataillean narrative of surrealism and the concerns of feminist art theory. Berlinde De Bruyckere's 2008 sculptural work, 'Marthe' exemplifies not only the psychological concept of the abject, but also the artist's preoccupation with ideas of metamorphosis. Constructed from wax, epoxy, metal, wood and glass, it reimagines the contorted human body transforming into a new and unsettling form. In 2000, 'In Flanders Field', an installation of casts of fivedead horses covered in horse hide, was displayed at Ypres, as a comment on the horrors of war. This breakthrough work led to an invitation to participate in the 2003 Venice Biennale where Berlinde De Bruyckere exhibited 'Black Horse'; a work that established the artist on the international scene. Read Less
