Etienne Chambaud Uncreature, 2023

Quiet gazes appear to issue forth from Chambaud’s series Uncreatures. The historical icons, panel paintings of religious figures represented against a golden background—the symbol of divine light—have been modified and the figures, except for their eyes, covered entirely with gold leaf. The chromatic difference between recently applied and original gilding, perhaps paradoxically, makes visible the outline of the hidden figures. Their gaze acts as a spatial marker, emanating from the expanse in a certain direction, but also a temporal one, as if the observer were encountering not just a representation but its spectral presence.