'Alann De Vuyst is a Flemish painter, a traveling nomad and a cultural zealot' dixit the Tom of Finland Foundation. 'He makes international art, that takes on the innocence of tribal sensitivity and tells us of the heartless ruggedness of urban sophistication' says art critic Ambalal Damami from Udaipur, Rajasthan in India:
'When people look at my work from a distance they are startled and think they are seeing tribal art from Australia. They notice the dots and lines, zigzags and curves, and strange symbols found in Aboriginal pieces. When they take a second look, at a closer range, there are lots of erotic symbols and phalli and that´s why the average viewer can be shocked, disgusted or often just amused. Then follows the usual remark: "Why do you paint like that?" And in an accusatory manner they add that I have no right to use those graphics because I am not Aboriginal. As if I had stolen something or claimed something to which I am not entitled.
Time tends to let people forget their ancestral images. We Westerners had the Visigoths, Celts and Vikings, to name a few, who used patterns similar, if not identical to the Aborigines. A Native American artist once said: The best way to preserve tradition is to continuously reinvent it. Our own heritage is rich,just think of the caves of the neolithic era in Altamira, Spain or the famous Cerne Abbas Giant of Dorset in the UK. When I saw the latter, it gave me the feeling I wasn¹t painting anything new but merely continuing what had always been there.
It is pleasant to discover how other cultures used to worship the lingam, or phallus, as a source of fertility and divine power. At one point in our childhood,we all have made primitive drawings, in which we would draw only the essential lines for fingers or legs, and that¹s exactly what drew me to tribal art: the simple but accurate lines, the dots and striking colors and the mysteries they hide which makes it all the more intriguing. Tribal art, of course, is not an art for art¹s sake - everything is connected to everyday life. Crockery is decorated to give it a life too. All graphics have a meaning whether painted on cloth, a vase or on a body.
So for me to merely copy what is tribal would be foolish. In my work I try to be narrative and pass on a message, be it spiritual or erotic. There is no society that does not depict its sexual life, though some have been erased by intolerant civilizations especially during the Judeo-Christian era and nowadays by fanatics like the Taliban and cie. Such was the case for Egypt, with its stylized monoliths, where lots of polymorphic creatures were destroyed. It has happened in Persepolis, Iran during the Khomeiny revolution. In India, with all of its erect marble stones, the average (middle-class) man is shocked and apprehensive to go and visit the marvels of the Kama Sutra sculptures in the Khajuraho temples. Even Gandhi once said, that the best thing to do would be to bury the whole Khajuraho site again to avoid the corruption of the country´s young minds.
All this bigotry and falsification has become the central drive for my work to (re)create art that can defy Taliban and the religious rightwinged censorship. My art still gets censored in Europe as well as in Asia. Of course the fact that I add some (homo-)erotic ingredients into my work doesn´t improve the situation. The whole thing started after my first visit to Brazil where I met autodidact painters in the northeastern states and in particular, in Cuiaba, capital of Mato Grosso. The art they made was called Arte Primitivo or arte caboclo. (A caboclo is someone with Indian blood or who lives as an Indian at the fringes of the jungle.)
In some ways one can compare their art with the naive art that emerged in Europe with Douanier Rousseau. Only their art is more indigenous with a much looser style and more vividly colored. I was then painting semi-realistic works in the studio of the Federal University of Mato Grosso State. When I returned to my native Belgium all that I had seen lingered in my mind. I wanted to get away from the harsh topics of politics and themes like aids which I used to paint in Europe.
My stay with the Xavante Indians, who adopted me in their clan through a blood pact, gave me an extra boost to steer away from anything realistic on canvas. When I finally visited Asia there was no more turning back. I saw primitive, naive art there, too. It was like my head started blending everything into my subconsciousness, as the input of colors and graphics from India and Nepal were overwhelming. The painted scrolls, called Pothuas, made by the indigenous Santhali people, the tantric paintings in Hindu temples, the Rajasthani miniatures of Maharajas mating with young men, orgies with women, with monkeys, and the Mithala art which originated in Bihar State which used to be painted on floors and walls by women), skeletons fornicating with virgins in shrines and last but not least Lord Shiva¹s erect penis ready to indulge with his consort Parvati.
Maha Kali¹s tribal black- voodoo-like power sent shivers through my spine. Seeing all this (much of which is not available to the local populations) has only confirmed that I was on the right track with my way of painting. 1995 took me back to Brazil where I witnessed a festival called Festa do Divino, the feast of the Holy Spirit, in the city of Perinópolis. Basically it is a replay of the Crusades (where the crusaders were the victors.) During a two week period masked men on horses rampage through the hilly streets of the city in authentic costumes. They wear masks representing the faces of bulls; their huge papier-mache horns decorated with paper flowers and garlands. The drunken participants play out scenes of violence such as settling a score with a foe or publicly raping a maiden or two.
This debauchery inspired me to sketch the men hanging from the belly of their stallion and being sodomized by it, or an act of fellatio between mount and rider. In Thailand in 1996 I was still following that lead and thus came to life my reptile-like creatures. The men-bulls had simply lost their ears or horns, but were still having a go with anything they could lay their claws on. From that moment on they led their own life and and I invented more creatures demon or god-like, sometimes in an pre-Colombian-like setting, sometimes in a futuristic environment or in a tantric dance. Orgasm, ecstasy, eros and Thanatos are never far away in my work."
Alann De Vuyst past exhibitionswere in: Belgium, Italy, France, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Thailand, Japan, India, USA, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru. His works are also being archived and sold by the Tom of Finland Foundation in San Francisco, California, USA.
