Chantier [Workspace]
1982-1994
Installation, 80 x 121 cm, 48 x 62.5 cm.
Materials: pastel, chalk, oil, paper
Collection: Collection M HKA, Antwerp (Inv. no. BK6890_M151).
Chantier, Barrage and Portrait de l’homme de Bessine are three separate works in the collection that, according to Hyber’s express wishes to that effect, have often been shown in varying constellations, allowing for new relationships between the works to emerge time and again. Chantier is one of Hyber’s oldest works, a charcoal drawing cum oil painting in which the artist explores notions of homeliness; Barrage is yet another variation on one of Hyber’s long-standing obsessions – the deep, unshakeable suspicion that the analytical schemata brought into existence to re-present certain real-life situations never quite get the job done. The so-called portrait of the Man from Bessine (a rudimentary pencil drawing on a piece of cardboard), finally, refers to a project realized by Hyber in the French town of Bessine: a public fountain cum sculpture made up of venomous green little men from whose various orifices streams of water pour forth.
