The Estrambotic birth of Venus (o the time factory)
Oil on canvas / 6 x 12 m / Year of creation: 2009–2012
DRAWING
OIL
Estrambotic Venus
Icon
Above all else, at the mathematical center of this universe, brazenly on display, stands a colossal figure recognized by everyone: a Venus with the head of a cow, flaunting her splendid body with a voluptuous attitude. She is The Estrambotic Venus, goddess of explicit carnal love. The head belongs to a brown cow from Ripoll. Quim Hereu spent two days between Camprodon and St. Joan de les Abadesses searching for a young cow with a sweet, intelligent, sensitive… almost human expression. She is the central figure, the emblem of Estramboticism for her undeniable virtuosity, its icon… but not its interpreter.
Time factory
Protagonist
In one corner, hidden behind a strange, twisted column that rises from the depths of the sea to grow toward the sky, there is a small woman with a swollen, globular belly. As if she were pregnant, her spherical abdomen resembles a rounded funnel ending in a generous opening, evoking some kind of biological mechanism. From this orifice emerge peculiar screws that spread across the entire painting, moving harmoniously and slowly from side to side, coiling as they go. This tiny female figure, leaning against the base of this stone column with her feet in the water, is The Time Factory. She is giving birth to the screws of eternal youth. She is the protagonist—the key.
Balloon-Men
Llegendarium
The Balloon-Men. With rosy cheeks and shiny backs, they are swollen to the point of bursting, dressed in short trousers and garters. Inflated with serotonin, they hover over the scenes like mayflies on their final flight. They are excess in its most primal form. They have lost the ability to listen to their muses.
Branch-men
Llegendarium
The Branch-Men, bare-legged to reveal their passivity and fear, never dare to do anything. Cowardly when faced with the events before them, they are condemned to a life of inaction. A perpetual fear, cold as Arctic ice, freezes their very will.
Inner Worlds
Llegendarium
The inner worlds of people represent an estrambotic metaphor illustrating the contrast between the exterior and the interior of a human being—between the body and the soul.
Carall Bernat
Llegendarium
El Carall Bernat, standing behind the goddess of carnal love, gazes with disdain at everything and everyone, and with the elegance of a French general, flaunts his virile member to the four winds, fully aware that his reign will last forever. His erect rock rises above the sea, just as the rhinoceros’ horn towers over the other mammals of the savannah.
