​Contemporary South African Art

 For information about the artists please visit their blog at http://sg-staelens.over-blog.com/

Ghyslaine and Sylvain STAELENS born in Paris in 1960 and 1968. Self-taught sculptor, live and work in the Cantal.

Ghyslaine and Sylvain STAELENS four hands working in perfect harmony, rare case in the history of art. Their bas-reliefs and nail fetishes, where wild wood takes the form of rusty metal with a clever sanding are exorcism exercise which together they embody the various mental entities that stimulate us or torment . Taking a moral turn, almost militant, inspiration reflects the complexity of the human being and against precarious ice flatness of the industrial culture. For them "the wire flexible and strong iron symbolizes attachment, wire and nails suffering and human horror, straight branches, they represent" the discipline, rigor, control of the mind " . Without doubt this is the organic way of symbolizing that gives this faux primitive art truer than true strength of an imaginary object loaded anthropology.

(Laurent DANCHIN, March 2006)