REVISTA SANS SOLEIL
ESTUDIOS DE LA
IMAGEN
José
Manuel Egea. To Remain ‘Black’
Forever
By Graciela García Muñoz*
Universidad Complutense de Madrid
Abstract:
Since
he was ten years old José Manuel Egea (Madrid, 1988) has been fascinated by the
myth of the Werewolf and particularly about the transformation of man into
beast. Egea’s art goes over this myth and focuses on metamorphosis of the human
being into a terrible and powerful creature. Though he began to paint and draw
very young, José Manuel Egea has developed most of his work in the workshops of
the Debajo del Sombrero Collective that welcome him since 2010. His work ranges
from the drawing and transforming magazines to sculpture, dolls and masks production
and performance.
Keywords:
Werewolf,
Outsider Art, Manuel Egea, Debajo del Sombrero Collective, Art and Developmental
Disabilities.
Illustrations 1 and 2: Egea’s artwork from
2012 and 2013.
Since he was ten years old, José Manuel Egea
(Madrid, 1988) has been fascinated by the Werewolf myth, particularly by the
transformation phase from man into beast, the step from light to dark,
from human being to powerful and dreadful creature.
Even though he began painting and drawing very
young, José Manuel has developed most of his practice in the workshops of the
Debajo del Sombrero Collective, who have welcomed him every week since 2010.
His artwork encompasses drawing and transforming magazines, to doll and mask
making, passing through sculpture and performance.
The 'wolf-ness' in
Egea's artwork
The fable of the man who transforms into a wolf is the root of Egea's
practice, and like it, he also joins the performative character of
the myth. One of
his lines of work consists on disturbing
photographs. He tears them from magazines and scratches them with a pen until
the portrayed person is buried under the black of the ink, making them
disappear by hiding the shape we see, to make
way for the monster.
Illustrations 3 and 4: Egea’s artwork, 2015.
When looking at these images close up, we understand that the direction
and intensity of pen strokes are essential to cause the beast to emerge. Egea
does not remain satisfied with just covering the image in black. It is more
about invoking the animal that throbs inside the portrayed, and that struggles
to get out. The
strokes go in the direction in which hairs spring from the face. It is scratched with extremely force, leaving a mark on
the tortured paper. This act transcends the
paper’s smoothness and transforms it too.
For Egea it is not
difficult to connect with the 'wolf-ness' -as he calls it- that dwells under
the appearance of people. He knows it well because of his own flare-ups, during
which is manifested his need of howling to calm down himself, and his passion
for tearing all sorts of things, especially his own clothes.
Illustration 5: Egea’s artwork, 2015.
His family tells
that, at home, he has the habit of ripping papers, preferably from magazines,
but also books -especially art books. So, they must hide them to avoid
him cutting them or tearing off the covers. His
family mitigates this drive by arranging the books with the spines inwards so
that the covers are not visible. He also rips paintings and photos. Some of
these are still hanging on the wall with the whole canvas made into pieces and
falling forward, with a corresponding bewilderment for people visiting.
Illustration
6. Egea’s
artwork, 2013.
The
aesthetic/visual imaginary of Egea
Egea's imaginary is nourished by
figures and physical features associated to the universe of the Werewolf,
influenced by the language of Marvel comics but, above all, emerging as a
universe of its own: singular and consistent.
The
claws are a pointed stylization of a
hand, in which he usually marks the joint on each finger with a circle.
Illustrations 7 and 8. Egea’s artwork, 2013
The
ears, also pointed, sometimes remind
us more of the ears of a rabbit, than those of a wolf, as if the
most important thing in them were to point out the astounding growth. He often empties, blackens or pierces the eyes in the images of magazines. It
is rare for him not to work on the eyes, as a way to make 'the human'
disappear.
Illustrations 9 and 10. Egea’s
artwork 2015
Egea
depicts the full moon, associated in
the legend with the transformation from man into wolf, as a sort of pomegranate
that, in turn, fruitfully contains other circles.
Illustrations 11 and 12. Egea’s
artwork from 2015 and 2011.
Again,
something very present in his work is the representation of the snout and the wolf's jaws, or as he
says the 'nose up here', also called the 'macho factor' - which we do not know
really well what he means-. The snout can be seen drawn on the photocopy of a
photograph, in which he appears next to some children. The 'moon-grenade' is on
the top left [of the same image].
Illustration 13. Modification of a photocopied photo.
There are also a series of
words or phrases that both attract him and that also mysteriously repeat while
drawing: androgynous, birth, transformation, 'machistar', ‘Fantariló’,
‘Guéndido’, I would like to see my father born, sacristy, born naked, umbilical
cord, ‘Aldano Pegalobeces’, the fool of the beach, passing on the 'wolfness' to
a teenager that then becomes half man half wolf, sleeping with him, turning
into black, hypertrichosis, chrysalis, to remain black forever, the hominids -
apparently apes give him a lot of fear.
Illustrations 14 and 15. Egea’s
artwork from 2013 and 2015
Recent interests
In his recent works he is very interested in
sticks. He picks them up from the street or/and rips them from the trees. He
associates them with the death of the werewolf, which is an interesting
confusion -traditionally you can only kill a werewolf with a silver bullet,
although it is more organic and powerful the image of the stake- commonly
associated with death of the vampires. This fusion or confusion between
legendary beings is not nonsensical. Both are considered the two most universal
myths that exist. Both are related to the man-beast that is indestructible by
conventional means, and the two are extremely strong, clever and fast.
Illustration 16. Egea’s artwork 2015.
An archetype: The Stren
The other legendary being that attracts to Egea,
although to a lesser extent than the Werewolf, is the Marvel superhero Hulk,
'la Masa', whose main attribute is the colossal power of his huge body and who
Egea likes to imitate.
Illustration 18 José Manuel Egea portrait. ©Teresa Isasi.
José Manuel Egea seems to feel a special
attraction for strength, along with, as we have
been saying, a singular ability to bring out the beast that dwells beneath the
appearance, to reveal the powerful, the beast, and the black. There is a Tarot card, arcana number XI
"Strength", that reflects the symbolic ability of Egea's creations.
The Arcanum XI is represented in the Tarot of Marseilles as a woman who opens
the jaws of a lion. She opens them with no effort, in spite of its name,
because above all this card symbolizes a passage; an opening to the knowledge
of the unconscious. It invites us to overcome the mask to know the animal that
dwells in us, and turns it into power. This archetypal strength,
understood not only as physical but also as mental power, seems to be the
engine and aesthetic search of José Manuel Egea.
Graciela Garcia, Madrid 2015.
Translation: Consuelo Rosa
Servan
Sources of images and
information:
The information and
anecdotes about Jose Manuel Egea come from Luis Sáez, Gemma Calleja and Lola
Barrera Lemus from Colectivo Debajo del Sombrero as well as from Mª Angeles
Laura Moreno Moreno, artist’s mum.
Colectivo Debajo del
Sombrero has facilitated all the images, being the portrait ones from
photographer © Teresa Isasi.
Full article in the
Bric-à-Brac magazine
Tags:
Art Brut Spain, outsider Art, Art and Autism, Colectivo Debajo del Sombrero,
Jose Manuel Ege
Graciela Garcia*
She
works as representing Christian Berst Gallery and the Art Brut Foundation
Project, carrying out research, curating and coordinating publications. She has
published the book 'Outsider Art: The Creative Drive Unmasked' (2015), as well
as articles in various specialized media such as Obsservatorio Outsider Art,
Art Therapy - Papers of art therapy and artistic education for social inclusion,
Sans Soleis- Studies about image or Seminter. She also gives conferences and
workshops in forums such as the UCM, the UAM, the Carlos III University, the
Sant Boi Mental Health and Culture Conference, the AlRaso Grant of the UGR, or
Arte Madrid (Fundación FIART).
She
maintains a personal blog dedicated to news and reflections on outsider art, '
el Hombre Jazmin', and she also is the director of Bric-à-Brac, a magazine
created for reflection on topics such as self-taught art, outsider art, art
Brut, and in general all kinds of creative manifestations that occur outside of
hegemonic art
