Genius of Victory
Ian Charles Lepine seeks to present beings trapped in a crossroads of contradiction: his interest is to display creatures whose very existence negates their very existence. These are beings at war with themselves, a war where all victories cannot but prove pyrrhic.
His sculptures are frequently accompanied by a poem in either English, French, or Italian, that seeks to give word to the tragedy intrinsic to the form.
Author: Ian Charles Lepine
Year: 2022
Title: Genius of Victory
Technique: Ceramic clay sculpture, painted with oxides and enamel.
Michelangelo’s Genius of Victory portrays a victory scene where a youth emerges triumphant over an old man who perhaps bears the likeness of Buonarroti. This Genius of Victory also emerges victorious after a struggle with himself, but in this piece that self is the world.
The angel emerges from the underground that used to contain him. A candle is placed inside the sculpture which illuminates his eyes and produces a light that is born from the depths of its darkness.
In this world of paradox, the very wings that make flight possible are heavy, cumbersome things, dragged behind this being and making his ascent even more difficult, but eventually they shall lead to flight.
Genius of Victory
I am reborn at last, after a year
Of fearing I was lost beyond myself;
At last I feel once more a zest for life
At last I live again beyond my fear;
But owing to my time amongst the dark
I am more grateful for the beauteous sun.
I realise now the privilege of man
And with an open ear await the lark.
My only hope from hence is to be wise:
For one whole year I clung to what was lost,
For one whole year I lived as lives a ghost
But now once more I open wide my eyes.
Against my self I triumph, life to seize;
With thirst I’ll drink my fate down to the lees.
–4 September MMXXII