Henry Hussey Performance Closes the Show
Henry Hussey closed his solo presentation of ‘We Live in the Remains of the Gods’ with his performance ‘Martyr (After Holbein)’, presented during the final 15 minutes of the London Art Fair where Anima Mundi presented a solo selection of Hussey’s works as part of 'Dialogues'.
Hussey's examination in to self revelation and sacrifice culminated in his naked body being presented on draped plinth / slab as a final offering to the passing audience. As Hussey states “I have killed Henry over and over again, because the only way to grow as a person is being willing to sacrifice what you hold dear and identify with, to eliminate the qualities which over time get in the way, stripping the ego in order to progress.”
Sacrifice is a central theme to Hussey’s recent work - that you must be willing to give everything, even the most intimate parts of yourself, in order to fully obtain your vision. It is a vision explored in multi-media, where each material choice is selected for its conceptual weight and potential. For Hussey a commonality between mediums is a learning of, and expansion beyond, the accepted boundaries of that medium, to take it in its pure form and brutalise it revealing its capabilities, strength, honesty and vulnerability. Beauty and barbarism seem like accurate representations of human duality, and allude to a blossoming deriving from raw truth. Works are put through extreme acts in their genesis, yet aim primarily to uphold a moral virtue.
Hussey says of this body of work that he is: “willing to alienate everyone because I know it is right and the decisions I am making are the correct ones. I think the past few years have made me far more formidable as an artist. I think the show is about history and culture and the cyclical nature of it and you need to have respect for the past, even when you’re in the midst of heated exchanges, you need to take a step back and look at the wider picture, not just of the current situation but how the situation has been played out throughout human history…”
For more information on Henry Hussey ‘We Live in the Remains of the Gods’ click here