Speak, Memory: Vittorio Roerade

12 December 2010 thru 20 February 2011
Location: Hogewal 1-9, The Hague
Back to overview page Speak, Memory: click here

Personal stories, distorted memories, lost moments and old traditions, traces of buildings: these are the elements that connect the diverse works in this exhibition. Below we focus on the work of Vittorio Roerade.

The paintings, and recently also bronze sculptures, by The Hague artist Vittorio Roerade (1962) depict an inner world that evokes fables, old stories, a universe where the boundaries between humans and animals, dreams, fiction and reality are not (yet) so clearly delineated. His works are often fairytale-like constructions in which humans and animals merge. Roerade returns, sometimes literally, sometimes figuratively, in his paintings and bronze sculptures to a more basic memory structure that is often ascribed to children.

In Speak, Memory a recently realized one and a half meter high bronze sculpture, TOTEM (TREE OF DELIGHTS) (2010) is shown alongside the smaller bronze sculpture EGGMAN (2010). In addition, several paintings by Roerade will be shown. MASK (2008), for example, is part of a series of images by Roerade of largely abstracted and reconfigured faces that turn into distorted portraits. The painting MY FATHER'S HOUSE (2010) is an attempt by the artist to find a language to talk about the physical deterioration of his father. The house functions here as a metaphor for men and for the state of our body. The house also plays an important role in the work of many other artists in this exhibition as a place where memories are rooted, are hiding or where they are stored.

Postcards from the parallel worlds of Vittorio Roerade - that would be the best way to describe his work. Oil, epoxy, doll eyes, human hair, wool threads, glitter powder, Roerade uses any material in creating his world. (...) "It are the fleeting moments that you capture," says Roerade.
[Dirk Limburg on the work of Vittorio Roerade. The full text appears in the Premium publication, February 2011].

 

Vittorio Roerade, My Father's House, 2010 + Mask, 2008
photo: Rob Kollaard (Stroom Den Haag)

Vittorio Roerade, Mask, 2008
photo: courtesy de kunstenaar en Cornelia Weijsenfeld

Vittorio Roerade, My Father's House, 2010

Vittorio Roerade, Eggman, 2010
photo: Rob Kollaard (Stroom Den Haag)

Vittorio Roerade, Totem (tree of delights), 2010
photo: Stroom Den Haag

Vittorio Roerade, Totem (tree of delights), 2010
photo: Rob Kollaard (Stroom Den Haag)

left: Vittorio Roerade, Funny Old World, 2010
photo: Rob Kollaard (Stroom Den Haag)