| Curriculum SOLO EXHIBITIONS - "1st International Paris Photography Art Fair – La 4ème Image – Solo Exhibition:
- “The Story of the Creative.” International Fine Art Exhibition - New
York City Gallery and Long Island City Gallery - NYC - USA 2013 |
About his Art
Photographer, painter, sculptor, author, composer and songwriter,
Birdy Tg is a multimedia artist who especially enjoys to play with the
interconnection, the permeability and the intercommunicability of his
various art disciplines to serve his photography.
For him, nothing is definitively compartmentalized in Art. Birdy Tg wants to feel totally free inside of his artistic expression, with no genre limitation, and that’s why he prefers to speak about his Art of Visual Art better than Photography as he often gladly mixes painting, drawing and photography all together into his art. The German Art Critic, Hans Herrmann, writes about Birdy Tg in 2014:
“Birdy Tg pushes further and breaks for well all the Photography limits
we used to know before… His Art is unique in the World !.”
“…Birdy Tg’s style is very unique and strong, escaping to all
traditional classifications, far from what is usually given to see in
the nowadays tidal wave of images.
Meanwhile, if a classification is needed, his photography could be
described as Lyrical, Poetic, Oneiric, Allegorical and Romantic.
He, himself, always describes his photographs as Visual Poems and Dramas.
Whatever, we are in presence of a body of artwork, in no way
coincidental, but extremely meticulous and thought, and which makes
think.
Each of the smallest details, even the most hidden ones, provides yet
more evidences to serve the underlying philosophical comment. Most of
his artworks are stuffed of coded messages but also of a bunch of
literature, painting, cinema, photography references and work as a true
treasure hunt for those who want to go further…
There is for sure the prime impact of the skill then always the possibility to dive deeper in Birdy Tg’s endless world…
…Birdy Tg uses a lot of different photography techniques, drawing and
paintings that he patiently mixes in very large format frescoes. Some of
his most recent works include more than 800 photographs in a single
artwork which required over several thousands hours to produce.
Those large photographic « collages » use the most recent techniques of
post-production to create what he describes as « Virtual Realities »:
« I want the viewer to be in front of a scene, of course virtual, but,
made of hundreds small realities all linked together, it finally soon
appears as a whole true and authentic entity, telling the story I want
to lead the viewer in.»
(Birdy Tg)
His photography often plays with a rich palette of dark tones and
focused light in a very elegant way, his aesthetics being not without
reminding the classic Japanese Art by the whole aestheticism but also
for the rigour of the global construction of the artwork
With no contradiction, there is in Birdy Tg, all of the fiddly profusion
and the creative genius madness of Hieronymus Boesch or Richard Dadd,
but also all of the German Romanticism, inside his palette, the lights
ripping out the obscurity, the characters facing the elements and their
own fears, the strong print of Literature and Philosophy, of the
Irrational and the Utopia… It’s certainly not an hazard if Joseph Anton
Koch and Birdy Tg,
both, give worship to Dante Alighieri and his “Divine Comedy”, if Birdy
Tg Pays homage to Eduard Biermannn with is work “Salvation”, if we feel
so well the Caspar David Friedrich ‘s atmospheres in many works like “A
Secret Universe” or “The Secret of Cloud Cities” … One can’t do
otherwise than thinking about the “Oeuvre Totale” (“Total Magnum Opus”)
concept so close to Philipp Oto Runge’s heart when Birdy Tg champions a
visual art work which makes one and only one with his music, his
writing, his painting, his sculpture in lauding: “Art is One and
Indivisible. All is One and one is All” (Birdy Tg – 2014).
It’s also very interesting to notice furthermore than Birdy T’g’s work
often refers to numerous German Artists as the expressionist Franz Von
Stuck to whom Birdy Tg pays tribute in “Eine berlinische Nostalgie”
(“Remember Berlin” Serie), or the Scpultors Rudolf Belling in “Drawing
the Line” (“Time Flies” Serie) and Waldemar Grizmek for who he
devotes the “Ages of Life” full Serie.
Birdy Tg’s artistic expression is definitively modern and contemporary. I
personally have the feeling that he could tackle any style, making it
His Style, with verve thanks to his obvious wide artistic culture. This
is precisely what I had the chance to confirm when I recently saw for
the first time his new Serie: “In the Garden of God and the Devil” in
which I discovered brand new art works in which he has mixed with
success and no contradiction at all, so many different styles together
as Baroque, Caricature, Surrealism, Minimal Art, in the most natural
way.
There are this permanent ferment, this incessant renewal, this constant
fresh air, this perpetual questioning, this endless risk-taking and
meanwhile this undisputable style homogeneity. Everything hit the
target, as it happens.
This is most surely what makes Birdy Tg’s style so unique…”
(Hans Herrmann – Art Critic – Germany 2014)
---
In 2013, after several solo and group exhibitions in France, Germany,
Luxembourg and USA, he publishes his first photography book « Drawing my
Line » including more than 200 of his photo works.
2014 is the year he decides to devote for making his ambitious project
about the Dante Alighieri’s «Divine Comedy», a reality. It is obviously
for him the opportunity to pay a glowing tribute to the Master of
Italian literature but also to the wonderful French illustrator and
painter Gustave Doré and, further, to the « Genius above all» fashion
designer: Yves Saint Laurent.
From a very contemporary and innovative angle, Birdy Tg draws a daring
but so real parallel between the « Inferno », the « Purgatory » and the «
Paradise » and the Fashion World.
Beginning the Serie as a thriller, this is on an alternately caustic,
bittersweet or tender chronicle that Birdy Tg expands with philosophical
undertones this intriguing and wide serial of photographs called « In
the Garden of God and the Devil »:
Young anonymous Fashionistas in search of a fulfilling societal
identity, young Models in quest for recognition, fame and eternity but
also well-known Fashion Creators of various destinies are staged under
the characters of Dante, Virgil, Beatrice, St Bernard,
angels and demons, the Devil or God… “…Whoever they are, one day
deified, the other crucified, fragile chimeras digested by inner demons,
shooting stars of artificial paradises, Whoever we are, forgotten
orphans or fallen angels of fame, We are all gold fishes, turning adrift
in the inexorable dark currents of limbo, trapped in the fish bowl of a
pitiless media and business society of appearances and collusions, just
able to dream about an unexpected walk of fame to Paradise before being
definitively drawn down in Inferno…”
(Birdy Tg - 2014)
This serial of photographs successively combines a lot of photography
technics and styles, from the most spontaneous ones like “street and
journalism photography”, passing by the more elaborated and artificial
“studio production” to end by large “photocomposition” lyrical, oneiric
and allegorical frescoes of hundreds and hundreds of
photographs and work hours, (Birdy Tg’s special expertise field), by
which he composes his visual poems echoed by his music and his words.
This has also been the opportunity to experiment and implement for the
occasion a new 3D photographic technic Birdy Tg has patiently developed
to make some of his photographs true three-dimensional sculptural
images.
In 2014, Birdy also works in parallel:
- On the next instalments of the Serie he began in 2012: “Time Flies”,
about the concomitance and simultaneity of Space-Times, of the Past, the
Present, and the Future.
Birdy Tg reveals “Legacy Cells”, a new impressive very large artwork (280x120cm) including over 850 individual photographs.
Through this artwork he philosophically tackles the theme of
transgenerational transmission of cultural and historical world heritage
threatened by various societal and ecologist events:
“Considering the increasing deterioration of climatic conditions, the
numerous negligence and major accidents caused by humans which are a
final threat to the ecosystem and its inhabitants, some international
scientists think to apply the “Panspermia” theory in shooting in space
some human
genome fragments in the direction of other galaxies to preserve humankind in settling it on distant planets.
In the meantime, fragments of human culture have already been shoot in space like a bottle in the open sea.
Some Japanese scientists have recently suggested combining those two
hypothetic techniques to insure eternity to the Japanese culture which
several whole sectors are, every day, more and more threatened by the
evolution of the Japanese society itself.
Japan, folded back on itself during centuries, succeeded in preserving
its culture and its precious originality. Unfortunately, nowadays
climatic events, but also technologic processes as well, with the
dangers they generate by their mistakes, endanger the country, from the
culture down to the family unit which was, for a while, until now, still
adamantly protected.
“Legacy Cells” prefigures what could be, somewhat, this new space Noah’s Ark.
It would bring inside the very essence of what Japan is, its
foundations, its moral and cultural values, its history through the
centuries, from the samurais area until the atomic bomb disasters of
Nagasaki and Hiroshima or the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe. All the
elements that built the Japanese society sacred link, each of the
symbols of unity and uniqueness...”
(Birdy Tg -Legacy Cell 2014)
- On a new Serie called “Captive Souls”:
“Prisons don’t need to have thick walls and sturdy bars and locks to be
effective. Psychological suffering can be even worst and its
constitutive jail, for a while, only made of wall of papers…”
(Birdy Tg – 2014)
This “very design” photography Serie is based on an unusual work of textures and 3D geometrical patterns.
- On his “Buds of Life”, “In those Peaceful Moments”, “Market Square
Heroes” and “Botany” Series that he will show for the first time at
Celina Gallery – Luxemburg,
for his solo exhibition in November 2014.
“This is the way for me to keep in mind that I still am a true
photographer…” he jokes. “A very simple shot has the same primordial
importance to me that a complicated composition, as long as this one is
able to express my emotions and/or to pass the message I want to
express. By instance, into my visual serie “Market Square Heroes”, I
want to tell how much I was impressed by those “everyday people” that I
met on a Cambodian market who were, in fact, the most deserving people I
had the chance to meet in 2013. I wanted to pay tribute to those
wonderful people, glorious heroes of their every day life. My heroes! :
Simple people with no kind of artifice, no kind of moral decline, no
kind of trick, only relying on their own courage, their work, their
loyalty, their deep respect in the other ones, their huge love for their
family and country; Humble people with no money at all but giving,
every day, the best of themselves for moving forward with their hard
life ; beautiful people trying to extricate themselves of all the
difficulties they inherit when they came to birth with nothing else than
a beating heart. They own so little but are spontaneously ready to
share it with you; How far have we gone from those fundamental human
values! …” (Birdy Tg – 2014)
During his solo show at Celina Gallery – Luxemburg, Birdy Tg will show
as well the very first artworks of a new visual serie called “Remember
Berlin”. This visual serie is very important to him because it is
closely related to the new novel of the same title, he has begun to
write : A great 60 years epic about the tragic fate of a whole family,
decimated, torn and scattered all through the world from Buenos Aires to
Tokyo, passing by New York City, Paris, Moscow and, of course, Berlin,
victim of the craziness of some political
officials who threw by fire and the sword the whole world into barbarism
and inhumanity, within the only aim to satisfy their own lust for
power. 2014 is also the second consecutive year he is one of the very
few international photographers to be selected for the International
Paris Photography Art Fair where he will show for the very first time
his new Serie: “In the Garden of God and the Devil”.
The famous art critic, Nathalie Becker writes into the Luxemburger Wort (National Luxemburg newspaper) about Birdy Tg:
“True Visual Poems: Birdy Tg shows his very unique and powerful style at
the Celina Gallery (see the whole press article: November 26, 2014) :
“True visual poems, strong and unusual artworks, processed as freeze
frames…; oneiric, baroque, surrealist frescoes… ; with an incredible
luminist and metaphorical style, Birdy Tg establishes himself as a
genius conjurer who leads the viewer into the story he wants to tell
him..” (Nathalie Becker – 2014)
On October 28, 2014, his second book of Photography: “I Hold My Line”, 380 Pages in 2 volumes, is published.
“This book is for me the necessary statement of two full years of
non-stop work” (Birdy Tg – 2014) For 2015, he announces he will carry on
with his “In the Garden of God and the Devil” Serie and will issue in
2016 a new photography book totally dedicated to the whole Serie
including a lot of his texts, novel extracts and poems, but also some
surprises as, for instance, a whole part dedicated to the deciphering
of the numerous codes used by Birdy Tg in his encoded artworks. Famous
French writer, novelist and essayist, Vincent Laisney, is entitled to
make the preface for this new book.
At the 3rd International Photography Paris Art Show, October 2015, Birdy
Tg makes the public presentation of his most incredible artwork up to
date: “Lux Ex Tenebris”, a true world record and technical achievement,
is including over 2200 individual photographs, (250x120cm in native
format, 300dpi, 16 bits, file over 50Go). Belonging again to the “In the
Garden of God and the Devil” serie and descripting “the exit of the
Hell and the arrival on the Purgatory beaches”, according to Dante
Alighieri “Divine Comedy”, this is a tribute to the famous French
Couture House GIVENCHY and his so talented designer, Mr Riccardo Tisci.
It required over 2500 hours of constant work to Birdy Tg.
In front of “Lux Ex Tenebris”, the French Art Critic, Eric Vivier, who
knows well about Birdy Tg’s art, states: “… Birdy Tg is undoubtedly the
leader of the diegetic and lyrical conceptual art movement for
Photography…” (Eric Vivier – 2015)
In 2016, Corridor Elephant Editions announce the edition house will
issue a set of 7 monography books about Birdy Tg’s Visual Work and
Literature over the next 5 years.
First volume: “Echoes of Outer Voices and Subtle Clues” will be issued
by the end of 2017. It includes over 100 of his photographs and
paintings and many extracts of his novels, poems and philosophical
essays.
Regarding this major project and its importance to the artist, Birdy Tg
decides he will decline all exhibitions for the 2 coming years (until
November 2017) except a big retrospective show with “Arts Factory
Gallery” from December 2016 to February 2017, scheduled since a long
time.
By November 2017, Birdy Tg should also unveil several new artworks belonging to the new visual serie: “L’Opéra Fabuleux”.
Written by Sandrine Gulian – Author Biographer –France October 2016