ROMAN LONGGINOU . SMOKE

Roman Longginou
Visual Artist

Smoke
2023
1140mmL x 1400mmH / Charcoal On Paper, Unframed

Artist Statement

The soft fall of quality cloth and the luxurious drape of a tailored garment invite thoughts of desire, security and status. For these reasons, I consider fabric to be a loaded material. Used as a false skin and “put on” like a mask, its presentation can be misleading.

Smoke leans into the tradition of vanitas painting. Depicting an eviscerated white shirt flayed out in a smoke like appearance. Pluming upwards as though it were a vapour.

Conjuring up the image of a deformed yet human like figure unravelling at the very seams. With hyper-real verisimilitude, Smoke reveals the ephemeral nature of human appearances and their fabric-like fragility.

Seen but not grasped, an appearance like an image, like smoke… is here now but can disappear in a moment.

About The Artist

Roman Longginou’s work explores connections between surface, reverence and the ‘ideal/ised’ image.

Working primarily with charcoal, his realistic works on paper, borrow from vanitas painting; contemplating contemporary symbols of idolatry, memento mori and the ephemeral.

His work develops tension between objects of desire and their inevitable decay.

Asking how the images we behold inform the images we make of ourselves.