David Altmejd: Frozen Instants of Realities

“When I started making sculpture, I realized that what made it different from any  other genre was that it exists in real space. It doesn’t exist in representations; it actually breathes the same air we breathe. It potentially has the same energy as a person. I wanted to make intensely powerful objects that were able to generate energy. So
I started making severed werewolf heads with crystals growing out
of them. When you place one of these objects on a table, it looks like it’s generating energy – because of very different things: because of the narrative that you can imagine, the violence connected to the decapitation; because of the crystals, the seductive aspect of the crystals; and because of the contrast between seductive and grotesque.  I use a lot of strategies when I make sculptures. The suggestion of transformation is only one of these strategies, because to suggest that an object can transform makes it seem like it’s alive.”