Serge Game
Serge Game does not avoid the material, although, he does avoid the subject. The image illustrates all sort of things, but in the end it is inadequate. Virtuoso mixtures of diverse media show semi-psychedelic performances full of somewhat abstract shapes in an airy color environment. However, it is not psychedelic either, it is too subdued for that. Game’s work is good at not being something. The painting teases the viewer by referring to something that ultimately is not, and the use of materials takes it even further. From a distance, a confusing play of light and shadow, transparency and material thickness arises. It’s an annoying quality.
Game’s sculptures reference to medieval reliquaries and hermetic architecture, references to bondage, anthropomorphic and zoomorphic creatures and grotesque Janus heads. They embody the basis for the visual language in his work. A visual language that consciously moves between figuration and abstraction which makes it difficult to label.
Stiff grins, muffled screams and bound, gagged shapes and sinister buildings populate his world. Together, they form an ever-growing population of phantasmagoric, enigmatic objects and figures with grotesque characteristics and monumental properties. The sculptures are an allegory on the human condition, the human condition in all its facets. Underlying themes include detachment, mysticism, physicality, absurdism, violence, and the search for salvation.