Roots re-visited

With this exhibition, Luc Huijbregts looks back at his religious roots, at a conception of the world that, for a long time now, he contemplates with detachment, and which he has previously reflected on in his earlier work. However, this is the first time that he has dedicated a monographic exhibition on the subject, using very often fragments of his own biography.
The sixteen pieces that are shown go over the iconography, the texts, the figures and the beliefs of Catholicism, also over the religious experience, the faith and its spiritual and material power, the dejection of losing it, or the freedom after it. Because it is an unrestricted view that allows the sculptor to analyze and propose new interpretations, critical and ironic most of them, of a religious imagery whose branches reach out to shape a form of life.
The main body of the exhibition is made up of lime wood sculptures, engraved with hundreds of very fine lines with which the works acquire that peculiar texture that is the trademark of their author. They are covered by a powerful polychrome to which Luc Huijbregts is also faithful. Although the wooden sculptures are in clear majority, other materials steal some of the limelight this time. This is the case of plaster, which two of the sculptures are made of, and also bronze, one piece. Besides, other elements, like feathers, metals or pearls, adorn many of the works. The amazement caused when viewing them attached to those frank, rounded and finished shapes of the wood, is meant to serve, as everything else, the symbolism that presides the output of this artist. Every piece hides messages enigmatically enclosed in a shape.
Some of the sculptures recall figures or noted texts of Sacred History. So, for example, we could see the feathers, just as the flame of the Holy Spirit, trying to imbue faith in the head of the doubting Thomas at Pentecost. That faith adorns also the heads of other ministers, turning them into shamans covered with spiritual authority and terrestrial power. Some of the symbols of the most traditional and popular iconography
would allow us in the same way to identify key figures of the Catholic faith, such as Peter or the Virgin Mary in some of her most celebrated dedications. Nevertheless, the references with which feathers, pearls, or votive offerings complement the sculpted forms are never obvious and, in any case, always go beyond their first and most evident meaning. This multiplies, like the relic of the Baptist’s head, which is served on a tray, so, respectfully, it encourages us to reflect and criticise.
Other works point directly to the personal religious experience, felt so profoundly and at times so painfully that it leaves us speechless. Nonetheless, the lack of freedom of speech is often consequence of one’s own fanaticism, and when not it is imposed by clerical power. The spirituality of the personal experience will always contrast with the material interests that are involved in the powerful and controversial presence of religion in society, many of its aspects Luc Huijbregts tries clearly to denounce. That happens with the chalice of blood that guarantees salvation and the same time collects the gold that pays for the passage to eternity. It also happens with the priest that hides under his brilliant disguise the shameful carnal desires which spills down his tunic. The sculptor directs harsh criticism, but not without a sense of humour, and always rich and full of nuances.
The complex interpretation that all of these works demand contrasts also with the simplicity of the definitive shapes that wood adopts. These arise at the same time from a laborious process of sculpture in which drawing participates too. Its role, although invisible when considering the finished result, is an essential part of the methodology of Luc Huijbregts, since he prepares his works drawing patterns that come alive in the shapes and volumes of his sculptures. Rooted in handicrafts that remind him of his mother, who also used to make her own clothes using patterns, placed on top of the material. These roots are retained by Luc Huijbregts, who combines them with the conceptual goals of current art.
Without being abstract, the shapes of these sculptures are composed and presented by their author reducing to the minimum the details of figuration, looking for the essence that identifies them with their content. All these pieces work like an aesthetic game that starts from the acknowledgement of those shapes. The artistic sign breaks free from its immediate reference and offers new meanings. The most familiar, the most obvious is therefore only the beginning, the staring point which imaginatively must take us to further and multiple interpretations, overlapping at times. Our look has to guess at the subject proposed, then it has to fly, change the perspective and enjoy the conceptual game that shows up the perception of the ambiguity of the images themselves..
The Dutch artist brought up in Catholicism, who revisits his roots and the very reach of them, is “playing at home”, however. He benefits from the familiarity of the contents tackled, and with the shapes that present them, expected in most of the public attending the show. This familiarity makes it easy for the spectator to recognise and appreciate the symbolic proposal that constitutes each work. But there are universal themes and on these rest the universality of the religious fact. Luc Huijbregts offers the chance to reflect on them once again and enjoy doing it. We should take advantage of it.

Matilde Carrasco Barranco.
Profesora Titular del Área de Estética y Teoría de las Artes. Departamento de Filosofía de la Universidad de Murcia.