Darth at the Pool – Jean-Marie Gitard (Mr Strange) – April 2024
🔹 Technique : Digital work
🔹 Print / Price:
• Hahnemühle paper (2 cm white border)
◦ 50 x 50 cm: €350 (Limited edition of 30 copies)
• Aludibond (without border)
◦ 60 x 60 cm: €450 (Limited edition of 10 copies)
◦ 80 x 80 cm: €650 (Limited edition of 5 copies)
🔹 Numbered and signed by hand
• On the front for prints on Hahnemühle paper
• On the back for works on Aludibond
🔹 Certificate of authenticity provided
Between absurd humor and a critique of conformity, Darth at the Pool juxtaposes the dark, totalitarian world of Darth Vader with the choreographic rigor of synchronized swimmers. The cult pop culture figure appears to be inspecting a troupe of identical bathers, in perfect rows, all wearing bright orange caps, in a pastel setting of a silent pool.
The staging, with its almost military symmetry, questions the spectator: what is this figure of power and chaos doing in a place of aquatic discipline? Is he there as an observer? As an intruder? Or as the sponsor of a perfectly orchestrated ballet? The reflection in the water reinforces the ambiguity between illusion and reality, while the contrast between the austerity of the black costume and the lightness of the swimsuits creates an irresistible visual tension.
Through this work, Mr Strange plays with cultural codes, subverts the collective imagination and confronts order with the absurd.
Darth at the Pool is a refined visual satire, as offbeat as it is profoundly contemporary.
