Case XVIII

The Tique-polyptych introduces definetely the next stage in the Le-donner- à-voir project, namely Homage & Conflict. During a monthlong residency at Tique Art Space, Antwerp, Case XIV was dismantled and reassembled again in a different constellation and in a different environment. This action revealed the difficulty of the in situ functioning of certain images. Images and fragments of images, embedded in the existing polyptychs unwillingly became a step forward in challenging the use of canons in the depiction of female nudes. This made it clear that one has to confront ones-self with an ongoing questioning of traditional strategies of conceiving an image. Homage does not come without conflict. References to 'high art painting' for instance invoke a pictorial tradition. It consistently implies acceptance of that tradition. At the same time it imposes restrictions on behalve of the image maker, who finds himself in a permanent state of conflict. Therefore, a compulsive iconophily is paradoxically and necessarily rendering the image maker into an iconoclast, which puts him in a conflictual relationship with the images.