Drunken Bellarmine

Renee So populates her works with figures drawn from multiple eras; the top hats and facial hair of Victorian times, the pantaloons of Dutch and Portuguese traders in 16th and early 17th century Japanese paintings, and the card tricks and theatrics of magic shows and comedic performance. A recurring feature of her work is the two-faced bearded figure seen in ‘Drunken Bellarmine’; the topmost face is simultaneously reflected and reversed at the centre of the beard, reminiscent of the ‘King’ and ‘Jack’ figures found on playing cards. Severed and sloped over a vertically-striped block, the drumstick-like legs abandoned on the block while the arms splay in a bemused arrangement on the floor below, the figure resembles a scene from slapstick comedy - drunkenly lolling in a puddle of wine, or victim to a magician’s sword trick, gone alarmingly awry. So’s works are executed using a knitting machine, precisely translating the artist’s line illustrations and flat colour planes into large panels.