‘When I make a sculpture I’m not trying to make a sculpture’, says Virgile Ittah; ‘I’m trying to make a living human being.’ Born of extensive research, the French-born artist’s ethereal wax figures capture the transient nature of living flesh, often using her own body as a model. Rendered on a life-size scale, Dreams are guilty, absolute and silent by fire is an important early work from 2013: the year she graduated from the Royal College of Art, and featured in Saatchi’s New Sensations. Informed by her itinerant family history, Ittah’s work explores the body as a site of isolation, exile and cultural fluidity. ‘My work narrates the isolation, anguish and transience which can be experienced whilst travelling with an unsettled stability in sight’, she explains. ‘Dreams are guilt, absolute and silent by fire evokes questions about the nature of subjective experience and the inner dimensions of the psyche. The work aims to blur the boundaries between fantasy and reality, corporeal and imaginative truth.’ Ittah cites Berlinde de Bruckyere and Auguste Rodin as influences, but derives greatest inspiration from the nature of her medium. ‘I fell in love straight away with wax, because it has this transparent quality and it’s a warm material like skin and flesh’, she explains. Ittah also incorporates marble dust, relishing the false illusion of antiquity it produces when viewed from a distance.
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