In the world of Mr. Strange, the coelacanth becomes Sheila Kant, ... and animals of all kinds ask metaphysical questions: the cat above the clouds, the monkey that remains at the end of a show, etc...
The unusual is obvious, and it is unclear what guided the artist: the desire to make clash of visuals or the undisguised pleasure of illustrating a word game, an expression, to show that the absurd nests everywhere, in the lived, the words or the images.
"I like to try to show that the world is not what we think it is, to decipher the artificial and puppetesque effervescence to expose human society, this puppet show where everyone plays their part by avoiding (but that's unconscious) to live his true life! I am attracted by the unusual, the bizarre and the nonsense. But pure provocation does not appeal to me".
Logically, the artist goes to the end and also sows trouble on the technique used: photo? painting? digital editing? All three at once! The artist imagines the scene from photos found on Google images, makes a digital montage to obtain a photo. "My challenge is mixing these images that have no connection between them. And who finally, once associated, create a new reality and open new doors ".
Behind the pseudonym of Mr Strange, a 50-year-old from Montpellier: "Art has always accompanied me, even though I have chosen my gift for sport very early on. I was a good tennis player in my youth and this activity became my job. I am a tennis teacher in the Hérault. But in high school, I had a course oriented towards the history of art and drawing.
I started very early to draw. Between 8 and 12 years, poetry .... Comics between 10 and 16 years old. Between 17 and 30 years old, I started painting with oil and modeling (Di Rosa and Combas style). Then I went through a long time without creation. About ten years ago, the creative volcano woke up. I started what I called "spicture", a mix of painting and sculpture. Relief paint using clay and acrylic.
Mr. Strange's work has found an unexpected extension. "I met a few years ago on the Internet from a Chinese, Qihai Chen. He had cracked on my photographic work and had proposed to reproduce one, L'Homme Penché, which knows a certain success on ARTMAJEUR. Since then, it has become my partner, taking up the challenge of transforming digital work into oil painting on canvas ". Text: A.D
Nicolas Sarazin
