‘Beautifully haunting’ is one way to describe Ray Caesar’s artwork. A resident of Toronto now, Caesar grew up in a troubled household in the tricky suburbs of South London near Brixton. The tiny wallpapered, Victorian residences from the early 1800s form the nostalgic backgrounds for many of his paintings. His imagery consists of lush environments and elaborately costumed characters reminiscent of a combination of French rococo and Dutch paintings in addition to the apparent Victorian styling. But within these highly ornamental scenes and frocks lies decay, distortion and medical anomalies; tattoos and tentacles.
Caesar renders his art using 3D software with movable appendages operable in a virtual world. He clothes and textures his environments and characters, sometimes even scanning his or his wife Jane’s skin from the area below the eyes and eyebrows, giving his creatures a sanguine, sentient appearance.
All of Caesar’s artwork stems from feelings and memories from his troubled childhood. Topics such as nostalgia and family medical history are symbolically represented in many of his creations. In his work Blessed, we see a girl with the scars of a caesarian section, a play on Caesar’s name: It is a picture of “all the things I have to cut out of my life,” says Caesar. He likes the idea of drawing on skin – an ideal drawing surface he claims – though he would not tattoo himself. “I don’t want to be ever not naked. You are always clothed if you have a tattoo,” says Caesar.
The amount of fine detail and subtle gems within Ray Caesar’s digital renderings could keep the viewer busy for hours in admiration… all the while probably being perplexed by some of his imagery. I’m not sure you can look at Ray Caesar’s work and remain undisturbed; but then, I’m not sure he’d want you to.
