Olivier de Sagazan’s Transfiguration, a performance first created 20 years ago, has to be one of the most original, incredible things you’re likely to see. That doesn’t mean you’ll like it.
The French painter, sculptor and performer takes his audience on a terrifying journey into a tortured artist’s psyche. It’s a shriek-out-loud horror show, the antichrist’s claymation. He’s up to some freaky voodoo, kneeling centre stage, stoking the sparks and smoke of a fire and chanting, ready to summon spirits.
But De Sagazan himself is to metamorphose into those spirits, a succession of creatures, demons and bogeymen. Smearing clay over his face, the sculptor is now the sculpture. He dots two blank, black pupils on his closed eyelids, a stroke of red for a mouth. As more layers are added, the distortion grows, the weirdness escalates. De Sagazan transforms into birds and beasts. He is a face-melted monster, a cadaverous grotesque, a peat bog man come back to life.
It’s truly visceral, as the artist tears open his own muddy flesh. He completely erases himself, applying thick daubs of clay until he has smoothed his head into a blank orb. It’s suffocating to watch him obliterate his airways, only to violently stab at his eyes and his gash of a mouth. In this world the body is an ugly, troublesome place.
Each new mask is a desperate attempt at creation, yet already in decay. A man may try to remake himself, but he cannot escape himself. It feels like watching De Sagazan struggling with his very existence, heading towards a breakdown – not necessarily an enjoyable experience. It’s indulgent, alienating and pretty hideous at times, but a genuinely startling spectacle.
At Sadler’s Wells, London, until 11 January. Part of the London international mime festival, which runs until 3 February.
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