Artist 336
Emil Melmoth
Dark surrealism
Sculpture
Emil Melmoth (1986) is a Mexican sculptor who specialises in dark surrealist works that portray the fragile duality between beauty and horror. He studied arts at ENPEG La Esmeralda.
His sculptures draw the viewer in with ornate details that in in same breath haunt you. He is inspired by traditional themes of memento mori from the baroque era, his Mexican heritage, and his fascination with death. Melmoth uses epoxy clay, varnished wood, and metal to create his macabre anatomical sculptures.
His works explore the universal anxieties of mortality, morality, and the fear of death. These themes of pessimism, nihilism, existentialism, mental instability, and even self-destruction are presented in dark yet soft imagery. The question of is there transcendence beyond death and how we are haunted by the unknown know plays on the mind as you view his art.
These grotesque, hyperrealistic sculptures resemble specimens that would not be amiss in a medical museum. While Melmoth’s works depict human anatomy, the mixed-media pieces use fantastical elements fusing with religious symbolism. Elements like bleeding hearts, crucifixions and hybrid forms mutated in unsettling ways are key symbolic tropes that flow through Melmoth’s art.
Melnoth has said, “[I am]… inspired on the macabre, death culture, freakshow, medical anatomica, catholicism, deformities.”
He goes on to explain in an Insta post, “All my work is basically inspired by the philosphical stoic concept of the "Memento Mori", as a reminder that nothing and nobody is forever, as everything on this life dies, so as it can be perceived on the numerous references i make
among the common elements i use, carrying it as like a motto of life from quite so many years from now on 'till this day and forever.
What was such an interesting and so well fitting point of view that comes along with this concept, is that my beautiful partner in life, my muse @mers_bast have her own motto of life that is another philososophical concept, "Amor Fati", which says that one must love and learn about the destino that life puts on our very own paths, accepting and correcting our mistakes and cherish or goals, for saying in a simple way.
So I made the fusion of these life motives we have in common with ultimate meaning of "Live your life the way you want without harming others, learn about your mistakes, be your best side and remember to embrace your personal death that is around the corner".
Melmoth’s sculptures play with the macabre, the fragile, and the unknown this plays on the human urge to look behind the veil of the unknown. Much like historically haunting fairytales and folklore dancing with the concept of death and what hides in the shadows reminds us how alive we are.
For more follow the artist on Insta :
@emil_melmoth
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