Spain, 1982.

Through my paintings, I strive to recreate a sense of tension, in which is reflected the insecurity of man in his environment, but also his fears, his angst, his miserableness facing life events: a being perpetually aggressed, but aggressor as well. This violence, implicit and at times invisible, leads him to a degenerative process which unveils the pathos in human relationships and existence itself.

The characters of my paintings are deformed by frenzied passions. Faces are dehumanized, reduced to the most primitive instincts which move humanity forward. These faces are of no one in particular. Portraits are of no interest to me: my characters have no identity.

The skin has been ripped from their faces. The eyes, the mouth, the nose, the features are deformed and almost disappear. Characters move between paintings, trying to demonstrate the problematic of despair and the sadness of a tragic solitude. Us, human beings, are uncertain by nature. The feeling of our helplessness makes us live a crazed anxiety.

Hostile, worried, inert faces cast into the void remind us that Man knows that he is miserable and aware of his condition. The paintings act as self-portraits describing our deepest fears.

The trivial confusion from the city and the crowd rhythms our life. By walking distractingly, we separate ourselves each time more from discernment. Marginalized, we accumulate bitterness and imprint our faces in the streets fissures.

Irene Bou

 

Art Gallery Barcelona