Minotaur
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 complemented by a poem in either English, French, or Italian, that seeks to give a voice to its inert matter.
Author: Ian Charles Lepine
Year: 2022
Title: Asterion
Technique: Ceramic clay sculpture, painted with oxides and enamel.
Asterion is the name of the Minotaur, the offspring of King Minos of Crete and Pasiphaë, who laid with Zeus in the guise of a white bull. Upon birth Minos condemned him to a labyrinth designed by Daedalus.
The Minotaur presented here is not a monster with bloodlust for Athenian youths. He is a thinking being, who sees himself imprisoned and realises that even if he would leave the maze, the labyrinth is inescapable. Life is a labyrinth with only one exit. In desperation, trying to escape from his cell, from himself, and from the self of others, Asterion tries to rip his own head off.
Labyrinth
I roamed this maze and thought throughout the night
That force of will one day would show the way.
And so, I spent in mad pursuit the day
And slayed those valiant men who dared to fight.
My one obsession was to be set free:
I undertook the burden of this war,
Believing life awaited at the door,
That I would find a clue, a way to flee.
I never lost my faith; I lost my mind.
For years I learned these corridors by rote,
Until perhaps I could divine the route.
One day at last the exit I did find.
I still was lost though I left the labyrinth.
The maze was not to stop until my death.
–8 June MMXXII