M HKA Ensembles

Sculpture, 34 x 37 x 4 cm.

Collection: Collection M HKA, Antwerp (Inv. no. M00439).

At first glance, this fragile-looking work resembles a fragment or souvenir of an ancient Greek fresco or wall relief. Femmy Otten's mythical creature depicts a contemporary centaur without an explicitly male torso, as was common in Greek mythology. The outline of a vagina has been traced on the hips of the horse's body, similar to graffiti left by a visitor or tourist. The creature's feminine features exude the same serenity as the Great Sphinx of Giza, even if the tensely curled mouth betrays a suppressed smile.

With Wit Gipsen Dier, Otten has created a contemporary fertility sculpture with art-historical references to antiquity. By adding eggs or faces (masks), she also hints at the Capitoline Wolf, who suckled the founders of Rome. In her practice, she often refers to Fra Angelico, a painter-monk from the early Renaissance or Etruscan art. In this new configuration, Otten raises the viewer's awareness of women's role, not as angelic figures or muses because of their beauty, but as the centre of fertility or founders of life. She does not contest the role of womanhood, as is often the case in art history. 

On the formal level, the work resembles a stamp in candle wax, an ancient custom used to seal a letter or apply a mark of authenticity. By using fragile materials, such as crumbling plaster, graffiti sketches, and paint, Otten lends the work a semblance of authenticity, much like a self-styled, updated anachronism.

DE