Come promesso, dopo il bel video di qualche giorno fa (qui) diamo uno sguardo ad “Imaginarium” ultimo show messo in mostra dal grande HORFE.

Lo show allestito presso gli spazi della Topsafe London, rappresenta il culmine di tutta la vita creativa dell’artista, un treno che attraverso tutti i medium cari ad HORFE, una collezione energetica di immagini e pezzi in tre dimensioni tutti creati appositamente dallo stesso durante gli ultimi mesi. Ma anche un omaggio all’idea dei propri graffiti portandoli ed elevandoli ad un livello organizzativo di facile fruibilità e condivisione anche con chi di questo mondo non è fan.

Influenze psichedeliche, irriverenza ma anche tratti oscuri nel lavoro del grande graf artist che vi diamo l’opportunità di apprezzare appieno attraverso questa ampissima gallery, enjoy it.

Imaginarium is the culmination of Horfe’s lifetime obsession with drawing and making – on paper, on canvas, on wood and in sculpture – away from the streets, trains and rooftops that have made him internationally famous. The result is a ludicrously energetic collection of images and 3D pieces, all painstakingly executed by hand over many months. The show recalls graffiti, Horfe says, in the way that he has “taken all the energy I used to put into my illegal painting and focused it towards one goal: describing and organizing my aesthetic in a way that I can share with everyone, graffiti fan or not.”

Influenced by everything from “the kids whose signatures I see in the streets” to obscene underground comics, Manga films like Akira and old Walt Disney movies, Horfe’s art is gleefully playful, dark and witty and brain-bendingly weird. It’s also masterfully-executed: the product of years of sketching and painting and a deep-seated, graffiti-influenced obsession with perfect ‘rhyming’ composition. All of the work in the show has been made specifically for the show; Horfe has ensconced himself in his studio and pushed himself further than ever before. He talks of going “into a sort of trance-state” while making these new pieces, forcing himself to work ceaselessly for long hours, being “100% dedicated to pushing my body to work non-stop.” He wants the cacophonic results to work on an almost sonic level for its audience, making the viewer “feel directly the effects of rhythm and rhyme, the visual noise in the work.” Everything in Horfe’s loud and lively work is shifting and writhing; “I just want things to move,” he insists.

Imaginarium is nothing if not kinetic: it takes the viewer on a wild fairground-ride of whacked-out imagery. Alongside Hokusai and Mike Kelley, Horfe cites early comics and animation geniuses as some of his biggest inspirations: Winsor McCay, Edmond-Francoise Calvo, Paul Grimault, Tex Avery, the Fleischer brothers and Osamu Tezuka. His show conjures the zany energy of early cartoons and catapults it into an eye-boggling and trippy hyperspace. “It’s always in the psychedelic that I recognize myself the most” he says.

Pics by Fucknfilthy