Artwork of the month - video (59 sec).

Winter Solstice

Year	2024
Size	38 cm × 48 cm × 5.7 cm
Materials	Laser engraved sandstone
Edition	1/1
For Sale	Yes, contact our gallery Fred&Ferry (Antwerp, BE)
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Robbert& Frank, Frank&Robbert celebrated the winter solstice in the garden of Robbert. The winter solstice occurs when the poles of the Earth reach their maximum tilt away from the Sun. Therefore, the day of the winter solstice is the day with the shortest amount of sunlight.

In the old days, the Ancients believed that this day was a crucial day in the Earth’s annual cycle. Without intervention, the Earth’s cycle could be broken, and the world would become forever covered in darkness. To break the spell, it was important to celebrate the light and kindle as many lights as possible.

Just before night falls on the 21st of December, a magic door opens— a portal between day and night. It is then that magical creatures come out; some of them have good intentions, others have bad ones. To protect each other and oneself from these demons, lights have to be lit, and a protection unit has to be built. The construction of protection units, tipis, or special modules is a practice as old as humanity itself.

In the 2011 movie ‘Melancholia’ by the Danish director Lars Von Trier, Earth faces a possible apocalypse, and at the end of the movie, when all hope seems lost, the main characters go outside in the garden and build a protection tipi from sticks and tree branches. What was a camp made by Robbert and his daughter suddenly became such a magical construction. At the hour of dawn, the artists venture outside and activate their Midwinter artwork; a heavy sandstone representing a troop of animals gathered around a central figure.

The drawing was lasered in a piece of sandstone, originally part of the house of Frank. The drawing is inspired by the story of Cernunnos (‘the horned one’). Cernunnos was a Celtic god worshipped in Gaul and Britain. He was the lord of fauna, flora, agriculture, prosperity, abundance, and the underworld. Cernunnos is often linked with the transformations in nature linked with the start of winter.

The drawing made by Robbert and Frank is packed with symbols— the artists hid their alter egos inside the scene and make links to their star signs. It’s a work about the dormant period of winter and the seeds of resurrection during springtime.

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