Jim Skull Abla & Alain Lecomte

For the 24th edition of Parcours des Mondes, Abla and Alain Lecomte present an exhibition devoted to the work of New Caledonian artist Jim Skull.

Abla & Alain Lecomte welcome Jim Skull.

Jim Skull was born in 1959 in New Caledonia.

A former student of the École nationale supérieure des arts appliqués Olivier de Serres, his obsession with death dates back to his childhood in Koumac, where the dry and often capricious climate scattered countless animal bones across the landscape.

He first devoted himself to drawing and invented his alter ego “Mr. Crâne,” whose ironic obsession was nothing less than wanting to kill the dead in a world without the living.

From 1980 onwards, he embarked on the creation of skulls, making casts from a single skull he calls the “perfect skull,” harmonious and ideally proportioned. Like the skull itself, which invites meditation and reflection on time and the finiteness of things, Jim Skull works slowly, in what he describes as a kind of “hypnotic execution of the automatic gesture,” exploring a wide variety of materials and techniques. His use of fibers, ropes, and other natural materials requires painstaking craftsmanship, and some works evoke for the viewer the “primitive” aesthetics of ethnic arts.

SKULL COVERED WITH TERRACOTTA BEADS FROM NIGER
Jim Skull
H.: 130 cm

© Jim Skull – C. Lebedinsky

Discover the Abla & Alain Lecomte Gallery at 4, rue des Beaux-Arts during Parcours des Mondes.