Charlie Roberts

Charlie Roberts is a storyteller. His stories take shape while he hews and cuts into wood. His rough wooden paintings and sculptures can grow into room-filling tableaux in which the most diverse figures are brought together. Portraits of pop stars and American sporting heroes figure next to all manner of animals and demons. They are theatre pieces about power, suffering and the dark side of society, but conveyed in a humorous way. The influence of American pop and folk culture is very much evident, mixed with references to art history.

Charlie Roberts has made for Sonsbeek 2008 a five metre tall, rough wooden Aztec head, which functions as a pavilion. Attached to the head are two metres long arms made of faggots that encircle the space and form a courtyard. The hands are raised up to form an entrance. Visitors entering this arena can see via the mouth what is going on in the head, where Roberts has depicted one of his wildest tales. We see a motley company of giants and little people of all manner of races, mythical creatures and totems, each hewn from a tree. Their half-naked bodies bear the attributes of modern man: wristwatches, mobile phones, sexy lingerie, all painted in bright colors. In Roberts’ story, these are the survivors of a great, fatal catastrophe - a chaotic, involuntary community of people gone astray, but they are not beyond redemption. For once again a child is born.

During the Procession the Guild of Monte Reno and De Onganse carried two living people and a rough wooden baby on a hand barrow.