Jan Fabre: Songs of the Canaries: A Tribute to Emiel Fabre and Robert Stroud
Curated by Dimitri Ozerkov
12th October, 2024 – November 23rd, 2024
Mucciaccia Gallery
21 Dering St
London
W1S 1AL
Mucciaccia Gallery is delighted to present Songs of the Canaries: A Tribute to Emiel Fabre and Robert Stroud, a solo exhibition by renowned Belgian artist Jan Fabre (b.1958, Antwerp) at our London location. The exhibition features a new body of sculptures finely carved from Carrara marble. Birds have long served as metaphysical symbols in Fabre’s art, acting as messengers between earth and sky, as well as between life and death.
Carrara white marble h 45x50x42 cm
Image courtesy of Mucciaccia Gallery
In Songs of the Canaries, this theme comes to life through a series of sculptures featuring canaries and parrots perched atop human brains, seemingly contemplating the mind’s inner workings. With evocative titles like Thinking Outside the Cage (2024), Measuring the Neurons (2024), and Sharing Secrets About the Neurons (2024), these sculptures harmonise the sounds of the sky with the echoes of human thoughts, all rendered with Fabre’s delicate craftsmanship.
At the heart of the exhibition is The Man Who Measures His Own Planet (2024), which revisits one of Fabre’s most iconic figures, The Man Who Measures The Clouds (1998). This earlier work has been exhibited at prestigious venues including La Biennale di Venezia, SMAK in Ghent, deSingel in Antwerp, Brussels Airport, and the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa.
Image courtesy of Mucciaccia Gallery
In this striking piece, a figure stands tall atop a stepladder, arms outstretched as if striving to measure the infinite vastness of the heavens. The sculpture features a cracked-open skull that reveals the inner workings of the brain, symbolising the artist’s lifelong quest to understand the incomprehensible. This figure is modelled after Fabre’s late brother, Emiel, who passed away at a young age and to whom the exhibition pays tribute.
Song of the Canaries takes on a deeper significance when considering the Flemish phrase “The canary is singing too loud in his brain,” Here, Fabre reflects on Emiel’s mental illness, suggesting that the overwhelming intensity of life’s song can sometimes become unbearable.
Carrara white marble
h 45x50x42 cm
Image courtesy of Mucciaccia Gallery
Through this work, Fabre immortalises Emiel’s spirit, capturing the essence of someone forever striving toward the infinite while attempting to measure the immeasurable. Ultimately, this exhibition serves as a poetic tribute to the fragility of life, the pursuit of dreams, and humanity’s enduring quest to understand the skies.
Jan Fabre: Songs of the Canaries: A Tribute to Emiel Fabre and Robert Stroud opens on the 12th of October, 2024 until the 23rd of November, 2024 at Mucciaccia Gallery
©2024 Mucciaccia Gallery
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