Vanitas
2019
Installation, 90 × 255 × 50 cm.
Materials: silicone, natuurlijk en kunstmatig geverfd haar
Collection: Stad Antwerpen, in langdurige bruikleen in M HKA (Inv. no. SCA0040).
Since leaving Maison Margiela in 2009, Martin Margiela (°1957, Genk) has devoted himself exclusively to the visual arts. The Vanitas installation is made of five silicone balls of artificial skin into which natural hairs have been implanted. The work is an abstract portrait of a woman and the traces left by the passage of time. Unlike the Dutch vanitas paintings of the 17th century that often evoke the vanity of earthly goods, knowledge and pleasures, Margiela's installation seems to show man himself as a representation of vanity. The Vanitas installation was purchased together with the Fashion Museum Antwerp (MoMu).