SCORPIO 2023 - Than Hussein Clark

From performance to photography, via painting, this London-based American artist touches on a wide range of mediums. His multidisciplinarity is reminiscent of Jean Cocteau, as much as his proposition for Correspondance Astrale, which is strongly inspired by a photo of the latter dating from 1925. Pluto, the planet associated with Scorpio and symbol of metamorphosis, is in a beneficial position, announcing complicated transition. Through an ingenious collage of polaroids, Than Hussein Clark compresses time and therefore manifests this metamorphosis in one image. One of the elements present in the photograph - the American flag - appears twice, before and after being put into flames. We witness the destruction by fire of this symbolic object but also its rebirth, like Cocteau's image, re-enacted by Than through this work. With an analog, simple but poetic trick, the artist - like the greek goddess Atropos affecting destiny by cutting its threads.