A dinosaur threatens Paris. Taken from Montmartre Hill, the setting is fine for some fun with both art and the city. We can't quite make up our minds here at Kuriositas whether this is a Tyrannosaurus rex but we are happy that he has finally found a use for those rather puny forearms. Heine has been drawing and taking photographs for over ten years and this series is the natural result of graphic exploration and his evolution as an artist.
Pencil Vs Camera was born. In order to contrast the realism of the photograph Heine has come up with some extraordinarily imaginative alternate realities going on at the paper level. Although very modern in approach this picture gives away the artist's love of the art of previous centuries. In this he has interpolated his own takes on famous paintings by Millet, Botticelli and Goya - do you recognise them? The eye at the centre? The tool by which the art is examined and interpreted. Your eye.
Although all of the series are created with a sense of humour (if not occasional mischief) there are some serious messages too. The above (no. 15) draws out attention to the plight of the koala in Australia, where its habitat is slowly being encroached upon and its numbers in the wild dwindling. Effectively, the battle between drawing and photography is both the focus and message of the series. As both transcend language (and Heine speaks six to varying degrees of fluency) the viewer can decide whether they ignore what is really going on behind the paper.
We would again like to thank Ben Heine for his kind permission to use these images on Kuriositas. As you may have guessed these represent only part of this particular series - and the tip of the iceberg for his creativity in general. You can see the rest of them in their set on Flickr. While you are there why not take a look at his collections? Go make yourself something to eat and drink - you may be there for some time!
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