Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 5
Nicholas CrombachFetch2018
2018
About the Item
In his recent works sculptor Nicholas Crombach uses the markers of tradition to critique social rituals. Through the employment of the mythology and the rich visual culture of the hunt, Crombach assembles works which revel in contradiction. He has created a series of unexpected juxtapositions that examine the cultural significance and the complex issues percolating around hunting and sporting traditions in the 21st century.
For this exhibition, Crombach riffs off the myth of Diana and Actaeon, which provides a poignant framework for his theme. In the original story, Actaeon, the hunter and grandson of King Cadmus, is in the forest with his dogs, when he spies Artemis (Diana) in her bath attended by her nymphs. Diana was the goddess of the hunt, but when the mortal Actaeon sees her, her nymphs try to cover her modesty. She splashes him with water, turning him from a mortal man into a stag, who flees into the forest only to be hunted down and killed by his own dogs. The hunter becomes the hunted.
Crombach’s Fetch (2018) refers to the mythology of Diana and Actaeon as he transforms the lofty and classical story of metamorphoses into a game of fetch in the local park, constructed on a grand scale. In Fetch (2018), Crombach creates a hybrid between the art historical imagery from paintings of hounds hunting stags with the flashy colours and synthetic materials of modern day dog chew toys. The sculpture is displayed alongside a variety of chew toys that act as an index for the sculptures interpretation, some transformed into porcelain that has been marked with the aristocratic hunting motifs found on antique English pottery. Here, the assembly of works create a conversation on the blurred boundaries between: histories of domestication, the working relationships we have with animals, contemporary issues of hunting as “play”, tradition and survival.
A second major new sculpture “End of the Chase” is a collapsed version of a Victorian period rocking horse housed in London’s V&A Museum Of Childhood. The sculpture responds to the 2014 hunting act that passed in Britain which in turn attempts to obliterate the tradition of hunting with hounds, most commonly associated with the fox hunt. The original rocking horse symbolises the innocence inherent in the sculpture’s visual forms, where as the exhausted rocking horse sculpture deals with ideas of the hunt and the collapse of the hunt-as-institution. “End of the Chase” intends to refer to the ending of this tradition while questioning if that was indeed a victory.
Finally, Crombach presents a stunning pair of Diana and Actaeon (2016) statues based directly on the famous Houdon sculpture that caused a sensation in 1777 now housed in the Louvre. However, rather than depicting the goddess as a radiant beauty, she appear as a modern middle aged woman holding a broken bow. Actaeon appears as a pot bellied man: their myths have been disturbed as they confront each other face to face, impending Actaeon’s transformation.
- Creator:Nicholas Crombach (1989, Canadian)
- Creation Year:2018
- Dimensions:Height: 85 in (215.9 cm)Width: 55 in (139.7 cm)Depth: 55 in (139.7 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:Montreal, CA
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU4763124993
About the Seller
5.0
Vetted Seller
These experienced sellers undergo a comprehensive evaluation by our team of in-house experts.
Established in 1996
1stDibs seller since 2014
96 sales on 1stDibs
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Ships From: Montreal, Canada
- Return PolicyA return for this item may be initiated within 7 days of delivery.
More From This SellerView All
- Boar MountLocated in Montreal, QuebecNicholas Crombach is interested in the complex interactions between humans and animals. Using sporting and hunting as markers of longstanding traditions of both adversarial and collaborative relationships between humans and animals, Crombach examines the cultural significance and the complex issues percolating domestication and domination, play and survival in the 21st century. Crombach combines references to mythology via a striking aesthetic, creating works which revel in their contradictions and contrasts. Notably, the artist draws from the myth of Diana and Actaeon, which provides a poignant framework for this new series. In Ovid’s tale Actaeon, a hunter and grandson of King Cadmus, is in the forest with his dogs when he spies Artemis (Diana), the venerated goddess of the hunt, in her bath attended by her nymphs. Diana’s nymphs try to cover her modesty as the goddess feels violated by Actaoen’s brash curiosity. Diana splashes water upon Actaeon, robbing him from his ability to speak and turning him from a mortal man into a stag who flees into the forest only to be hunted down and killed by his own dogs. The hunter becomes the hunted. Crombach’s Fetch (2018) refers to the mythology of Diana and Actaeon in its last tragic hour, but the classical story of metamorphoses is presented as a game of fetch in the local park. Crombach creates a hybrid between the art historical imagery from paintings of hounds...Category
2010s Contemporary Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsNylon, Resin, Mixed Media, Acrylic
- Night ShiftBy Guillaume LachapelleLocated in Montreal, QuebecText by Terence Sharpe There is a moment in Andrei Tarkovsky’s Solaris (1972) when the character Hari commits suicide by drinking liquid oxygen. As she is not actually a human, but an artificial hybrid product of the mysterious planet and the protagonists’ memories, she heals rapidly and is alive again minutes later. Her choice to take her own life is poignant, seemingly the action of a being becoming aware of its hopeless infinitude. Her realization that while the men will die on the space station or elsewhere, her existence is that of immortality, a deeply alienating notion that causes her to seek her own destruction. The Montreal artist Guillaume Lachapelle has one work that prompts a sense of eternal alienation that echoes Hari’s tragedy. The work greets the viewer with a empty doorway flanked by clinically white bookshelves...Category
2010s Contemporary Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsNylon, Glass, Wood, LED Light, Acrylic
- Night shift IIBy Guillaume LachapelleLocated in Montreal, QuebecText by Terence Sharpe There is a moment in Andrei Tarkovsky’s Solaris (1972) when the character Hari commits suicide by drinking liquid oxygen. As she is not actually a human, but an artificial hybrid product of the mysterious planet and the protagonists’ memories, she heals rapidly and is alive again minutes later. Her choice to take her own life is poignant, seemingly the action of a being becoming aware of its hopeless infinitude. Her realization that while the men will die on the space station or elsewhere, her existence is that of immortality, a deeply alienating notion that causes her to seek her own destruction. The Montreal artist Guillaume Lachapelle has one work that prompts a sense of eternal alienation that echoes Hari’s tragedy. The work greets the viewer with a empty doorway flanked by clinically white bookshelves...Category
2010s Contemporary Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsNylon, Glass, LED Light, Acrylic
- Nature MorteLocated in Montreal, QuebecNicholas Crombach has a BFA from OCAD University with a major in Sculpture and Installation. In 2016-17 he participated in a year-long studio residency at The Florence Trust in Londo...Category
2010s Contemporary Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsResin, Paint, Polyurethane
- BudgiesLocated in Montreal, QuebecNicholas Crombach has a BFA from OCAD University with a major in Sculpture and Installation. In 2016-17 he participated in a year-long studio residency at The Florence Trust in Londo...Category
2010s Contemporary Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsResin, Paint, Polyurethane
- SparrowsLocated in Montreal, QuebecNicholas Crombach has a BFA from OCAD University with a major in Sculpture and Installation. In 2016-17 he participated in a year-long studio residency at The Florence Trust in Londo...Category
2010s Contemporary Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsResin, Paint, Polyurethane
You May Also Like
- BreathLocated in New Orleans, LAThierry Job was born in Marseille, France and currently lives in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. He studied art at the School of Beaux Arts in Paris. His works as been exhibited at th...Category
2010s Contemporary Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsSteel
- Giraffe - Monumental Contemporary Resin Outdoor SculptureBy MarikoLocated in Miami, FLMariko’s sculptures are unique and monumental contemporary pieces made of resin and reinforced with an inside metallic structure, finished with a bi-component urethane paint, extreme...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Sculptures
MaterialsResin, Automotive Paint, Polyurethane
- Giraffe - Monumental Contemporary Resin Outdoor SculptureBy MarikoLocated in Miami, FLMariko’s sculptures are unique and monumental contemporary pieces made of resin and reinforced with an inside metallic structure, finished with a bi-component urethane paint, extreme...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Sculptures
MaterialsResin, Automotive Paint, Polyurethane
- Giraffe - Monumental Contemporary Resin Outdoor SculptureBy MarikoLocated in Miami, FLMariko’s sculptures are unique and monumental contemporary pieces made of resin and reinforced with an inside metallic structure, finished with a bi-component urethane paint, extreme...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Sculptures
MaterialsResin, Automotive Paint, Polyurethane
- Les Visiteurs Boudeurs - Monumental Contemporary Resin Outdoor SculpturesBy MarikoLocated in Miami, FLMariko’s sculptures are unique and monumental contemporary pieces made of resin and reinforced with an inside metallic structure, finished with a bi-component urethane paint, extreme...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Sculptures
MaterialsResin, Automotive Paint, Polyurethane
- Visiteur Boudeur - Monumental Contemporary Resin Outdoor SculptureBy MarikoLocated in Miami, FLMariko’s sculptures are unique and monumental contemporary pieces made of resin and reinforced with an inside metallic structure, finished with a bi-component urethane paint, extreme...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Sculptures
MaterialsResin, Automotive Paint, Polyurethane