RITE-HAND MAN

Artist Johan Tahon explains why he ended up making a sculpture for Amenra’s 20th anniversary fire ritual

How did you become involved with Amenra?

“There was a lot of talking about Colin around the city of Ghent. About the way he lived, what his interests were, but also that he helped a lot of people who had problems. So I thought, ‘I have to meet this man’. I did some research on the music and I was so astonished: this was so profound, something archaic. Something dark, but on the other side also positive: a very strange combination of these extremes. And once we started talking, we discovered that we had so much in common: psychologically, our interests in art. And out of this talking grew this project.”

What do you have in common?

“He is trying to find a solution for his personal life. He’s not only looking for artistic possibilities. There is a psychology involved – there is deep necessity involved. When we lost our fathers, we both started to change our way of living, our way of looking at reality, and our way of making art. At this moment, we decided it would not be playing anymore. It had to be serious.”

Can you tell us about your own art?

“I work in different materials, all sorts of classical materials, but I also work with bronze sculptures when they have to stay outside. They can be very monumental: the biggest I made is 14 metres high. These sculptures are figurative, you can see a sort of entity in them, it’s almost human. But it’s also abstract.

Some say they are frightening, but I think they are very positive. You know Edvard Munch? There’s something about him in this. He didn’t do this for the romantic part of art. It’s to survive. There’s something not polished, very direct. Very honest.”

How did you make the sculpture for the fire ritual?

“I have a friend who has chronic fatigue syndrome. I made a bronze sculpture about his pain points that he showed me. I exaggerated them, making it like bubbles on the body. And there’s no head, there’s no arms, only these pain points. I had this sculpture in my garden and Colin saw it. He was like, ‘Whoa – can we do something with this?’ So I made a combination of the tattoo on Colin’s back [the Amenra symbol of the upside down gallows] and put it on the same body. I saw the show where he had the hooks in his flesh with the stones [at Ancienne Belgique]. And I thought, ‘This sculpture is for Colin. I have to honour him for what he does.’” See more at: www.johantahon.com/jt/en