pogonophile (plural pogonophiles)
- One who loves or studies beards.
Yup, that might be me… 😉
In summer 2015, I started my “bearded men” series which I completed in spring 2016.
“Bearded men” is a series of portraits of – who would have thought! – men featuring (a lot of) facial hair. It is also a study of how a beard can symbolize many things – manhood, growth, wisdom, longing… Furthermore, the series shows stations of a relationship in a surrealisticly symbolic way.
As to the techniques: I bought the rights of some stock photos and edited them a bit using Photoshop. Then, the pictures were printed on cotton. I used my simple old ink-jet printer and was very pleased that the resulting images roughly resembled screenprints! After that: hand stitching time!
Let me write a few words about each piece:
Some thoughts about the piece:
- visual representation of hatching thoughts
- ideas need time; they take shape, they change…
- thoughts are often elusive and frail
- the (white) beard as a symbol for the wise man, the thinker
The journey of the piece:
This piece traveled to Skopje, Macedonia, in summer 2016 and was shown at Paratissima 3.
Some thoughts about the piece:
- visual representation of being un-passionate
- needs can be urgent
- the pain of others can hurt oneself
- a (sarcastic) hurray to suppression…
The journey of the piece:
This piece traveled to Skopje, Macedonia, in summer 2016 and was shown at Paratissima 3.
Some thoughts about the piece:
- visual representation of the attraction between two humans
- drawn thought lines from the man to the heart of his partner
- the heart as the vis-à-vis
- the art admirer is the heart
The journey of the piece:
This piece traveled to Skopje, Macedonia, in summer 2016 and was shown at Paratissima 3. It was also shown at the art fair in Basel in 2017 where it sold.
Some thoughts about the piece:
- visual representation of growing anger
- anger is growing out of the beard, ergo out of the male self
- anger can be beautiful
- anger can produce something
- anger can alter things
The journey of the piece:
This piece traveled to Skopje, Macedonia, in summer 2016 and was shown at Paratissima 3. This spring, a photograph of the piece was printed on a large tarpaulin and can now be visited (amongst other great artwork) in an open air installation by Art in Open Roomz.
Edit June 2020: The original art piece was sold after the open air installation.