“The Red Vivisector”, 2024
“The Red Vivisector”, 2024
. Glazed and lustered ceramic
. Dimensions : 16 x 8 x 8 cm
. Edition of 12 + 3 AP
. Price: €750 Excl. VAT (Shipping not included) *SOLD OUT*
The Red Vivisector is a study related to the monumental Le Grand Vivisecteur, a bronze sculpture inspired by the novel «The Vivisector» by Patrick White (1970), which explores the universal ideas of the creator’s suffering, the quest of truth and the meaning of existence ; the book haunted Johan Creten’s childhood and kindled his desire to be an artist.
Inspired by the artist's personal metamorphoses and mythologies, the work evokes the idea of unveiling, dissecting to understand, exploring to reveal. Whether isolated or integrated into a larger installation, The Red Vivisector imposes a disturbing presence, oscillating between attraction and resistance.
This small version is very loosely based on two large-scale works by Johan Creten, Le Grand Vivisecteur and Vivisecteur. Le Grand Vivisecteur is a monumental bronze sculpture that explores the idea of dissecting the human body, capturing a tension between beauty and monstrosity. The smaller version, Vivisecteur, takes up these themes in a more intimate form, concentrating the ambiguity and fascination.
These sculptures have been exhibited in prestigious venues such as the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium in Brussels, and the Centre Pompidou-Metz. Also exhibited in galleries such as Perrotin in Paris, New York and Hong Kong, they have reached a wide audience, prompting reflection on the body and transformation in the context of contemporary art.
