Dimensions: 350 x 280 mm
Copyright: © Marcel Dzama, courtesy of David Zwirner, New York | CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Curator: This untitled work by Marcel Dzama presents a disquieting scene in ink and watercolor, measuring 350 by 280 millimeters. I find it unsettling. There’s a pervasive sense of unease. Editor: The hanging figure, the child embracing the tree, the solemn dog... the symbols feel loaded. The tree itself, with its mournful eyes, echoes ancient animistic beliefs, imbuing nature with consciousness. Curator: Dzama's work often draws from folklore and literature, positioning these archetypes within a broader critique of social power structures. Perhaps this is about innocence confronted by brutal realities. Editor: Absolutely. Notice the red birds – are they harbingers of death, or silent witnesses? Red often signifies passion or violence. Curator: Considering Dzama's engagement with the absurd, there's a tension here between whimsy and a deeper, darker commentary. Editor: It leaves one with a chilling sense of unresolved narrative. Curator: Indeed. It's a complex intersection of folklore, symbolism, and social commentary, inviting reflection on power dynamics and innocence lost. Editor: A powerful example of how personal symbolism can tap into collective anxieties.
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This untitled drawing centres on a tree with a cartoon face. Suspended by a rope around his neck, a boy hangs from one of the tree’s upper branches on the right side of the image. On the left, under its wide-eyed and disapproving stare, a naked boy copulates with the base of its trunk. His brown clothes and hat lie strewn on the grass beside him; behind him, a dog of the same colour sits up and begs. The hanged boy’s feet dangle over the horizon of a rural landscape comprising a ploughed field enclosed by fences and bushes and a broad area of grass in which the tree is set. This is extremely unusual in Dzama’s drawings which normally feature figures – humans and anthropomorphised or hybridised animals and plants – floating on an empty page. Here, an irregular shaped chunk of landscape forms the base out of which the central tree character and a more naturalistic tree in the background to its left grow. The greens and browns that colour the landscape are repeated in the hanging boy’s clothes and hair. Compositionally balancing the two boys, two red parrot-like birds perch on branches and flowers of a similar shade dot the grass and the background tree. A small wooden cross emerges from behind the tree trunk, suggesting the presence of a grave. On its horizontal plank tiny letters that could spell the artist’s name ‘Marcel’ are written.
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