“My art is dark because life is dark…people would not be able to be in search of light if they didn’t know what darkness represents.” – Maxime Taccardi
The dreams of Maxime Taccardi speak. Each night when this French-born artist closes his eyes, a whole new world stands unveiled. A subversive fantasy where darkness reigns supreme and the most perverse aspects of humanity are stripped bare. Using death, and all its facets, as his greatest muse – he fleshes out the lucid visions using parchment, ink and his own blood. The results, although frightening for some, signal beauty for another.
This is CVLT Nation’s exclusive and in-depth interview with this artist…
CVLT: When did you first realised you wanted to explore your darker thoughts through art?
TACCARDI: “I don’t know, to be honest. I never considered myself as a so-called ‘artist’. I just try to express what I have in mind. When I was younger, I was dreaming a lot. I was more into my own imagery than into the common reality.
“I always tried to create art and imagery. When I was a kid, I was doing comic books about creatures and martial arts. I started to create my ‘visions’ in university because I had more time to draw and let my imagery emerge from my mind.”
CVLT: How has your style developed over time?
TACCARDI: “Since I was a kid, I’ve always drawn dark stuff. Creatures, gore, monsters – even my master’s thesis was about the monstrosity. What is feared by the common society always fascinated me, the ‘other’. The one who is different and use this difference as a weapon and a way of life – this is what inspires me. One of my favourite movies of all time is Freaks from Tod Browning.
“Sometimes I draw in colors but, I have to admit, that I really like the black and white because it’s more enigmatic and out of any temporality. I like realistic drawings; I studied a lot the human anatomy to have more realistic results.
“Also, I work a lot the shadows to make the darkness visible. I really appreciate the paintings from the famous artist Le Caravage from the 16th century. He had his own way of light and shadows. My favourite artist is Francisco De Goya, especially his black paintings and his engravings from the series called Los Caprichos and The Disasters of War. His visions of suffering and agony have never been equalled. I saw Chronos inSpain and I really felt the darkness and madness through this masterpiece. This is the first painting I engraved in my mind when I saw it when I was a kid. It’s still my favourite.”
The Pact….using his own blood to bring his pieces to life.
CVLT: Can you describe your creative construction process?
TACCARDI: “I only draw with pencil on different sizes format paper. I don’t use so much paint because I prefer black pencils but I will start some paintings soon.
“When I have an idea or a concept, I do some sketches to have the entire composition in mind. Sometimes not. I tried to give sense to everything I put on the image in a metaphoric way. Most of my ideas are coming from my dreams, so I try to write or remember them when I wake up. I kept these ideas in my mind, sometimes for years before translating them into images. I think time is bringing the better moment to do this and not that; it depends of my feelings at this time etc. I don’t believe in coincidences, I think everything has its own reason. What you do every day, the movie you are watching, the interactions between people – everything.”
CVLT: You draw from many forms of grim imagery for your pieces. Does your art pose legitimate questions about society, as much as mocking society’s perceptions?
TACCARDI: “Generally, people are like ‘What the fuck is in your head man?’ because it’s hard for them to understand explicit and graphic violence. I don’t believe art is bringing images just for the pleasure to admire images. I truly believe it brings something to make people react and think about life like the parables in the new testament for example.
“I like the art of symbolism behind a trivial representation; you can give a hidden sense with the association of different elements. My art is dark because life is dark, it can sound a little bit cliché but people would not be able to be in search of light if they didn’t know what darkness represents. There is no happiness without sadness, no love without hate.
“We’re all living this circle and waiting for the end. We all know that and there is nothing we can do. Life is life, ashes are ashes. Ignorance is used as a drug to make this more acceptable. Life is running fast and there is no tutorial to make it pleasant or shinny. We have to find our own reasons and never go back. What is buried will never be again.”
People say I’m no good (Charles Manson portrait)
“The title is a reference to one of his songs. When I did this portrait, I was listening to all his recordings and sometimes I felt like if some of his words where directly speaking to me. Why Charles Manson? I think the aura surrounding his name became more important than him and I find this really fascinating. In my drawing, I did the rings of Borromée instead of the Swastika tattoo in his front. These rings symbolise the unity between people and it’s also a representation of the family (as a reference to Manson’s Family).
“In the bottom, we can see an inverted patriarchal cross. Historically, this cross has its origin from Greece, the first step is buried in the ground and symbolise the faith established in the world and the second step is the representation of the crucifixion of Jesus. But it takes another sense when it’s inverted. Manson was considered as a messiah by his followers and he tried to bring his own vision of the apocalypse. That’s why I represented an angel playing a trumpet like if it was sounding the end of the world. In his song called Mechanical Man, he sings:
“I had a little monkey
And I sent him to the country
And I fed him ginger bread
Along came a choo choo
And knocked my monkey koo koo
And now my monkey’s dead.”
“I did the monkey on the right as a reference to this song with a SS officer hat to fit with the Helter Skelter interpretation Manson had. Skulls and eyes can be seen as the victims of the apocalypse 69.
À L’ombre de Satan où le jugement dernier (In Satan’s shadow or the judgment day)
“This is the vision of all that is known as evil in the society and in human beliefs. Satan, the accuser, is standing in the middle. This all piece is the representation ofSt Jean’s vision of the Apocalypse. We can see the serpent, the forbidden fruit, sins and people who created the sombre days of history. Hitler was seen as the incarnation of the Antichrist at this time.”
And man created death
“This one is about the same topic and has a related interpretation; it makes reference to the quotation: “And God created life”. It means that men are only able to create their own death.”
Awaiting Death
“In this one, I tried to represent agony, sorrow and solitude in a metaphoric way. This is a dog but it could be a man. I didn’t want to add anything on the background because I wanted him isolated and lost in his loneliness.”
Martyr
“I used my blood to fits with the concept of dying for our own religious believes. I wrote a poem for this piece:
“Esquissée du néant, une beauté sublime et suffocante s’en élève et fait chanceler nos âmes.
La douceur amère que me procure la vision d’un monde décharné
n’est due qu’à l’extatique et éphémère euphorie d’une vie passée.
Les flammes de la compassion irradient mon cœur,
Je n’ai rien à espérer, l’autosuffisance touche à sa fin.
Plongé seul dans mes angoisses,
je contemple l’abime majestueux et irrésistible de la mort.
D’immondes oiseaux désincarnés annoncent avec effroi une nouvelle ère teintée d’amertume.
L’enfant disloqué, né de l’union illicite d’une Babylone à l’agonie et d’une semence sénile et avariée,
entame sa mue inexorable.
Le serpent qui berce son cœur crache son venin à la figure impassible d’un monde en proie à la folie de l’homme.
Sa laideur s’enfonce dans les méandres de l’oubli, partagée entre la haine et le désir…
Poème raté d’un monde raté.”
Lilith
“As she is described in the bible.”
Soleil Noir
“This one is a representation of Ra the sun god in the ancientEgypt, but I did it in an insane way, this an oxymoron, an ode to the black light.”
Jacob’s Ladder
“A variation on the myth of Jacob’s Ladder in a pervert way.”
Betrayed
“Betrayed is a self portrait, crosses represent religion but more generally life. The child is a representation of the lost innocence, the murder of childhood. The man is facing the sky to say “…you betrayed me as you betrayed life, I end myself cause i don’t accept it…“. People usually don’t like this kind of ‘subversive art’ cause they just don’t understand it, or to say the truth, they just don’t want to understand it. This is not just an image, blood is giving us an answer, a certain truth, just as religions wrote their pages in blood.
“I’m not saying my thinking or my art is bringing the truth on this world, no way, it’s just bringing my truth. Violence in art is not tolerable but people accept it everyday in front of their TV, isn’t it so ironic? Beautiful images in this world are just hiding the misery.”
Like Nietzsche said once, “to live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering.”
Al-Masih ad-Dajjal
“This one is the representation of Dajjal, the antichrist in the Islam. In the Qur’an, it is said that one day, before the judgment day, a false prophet will rise and people will think he is the true one. His right eye is dead and we can read on his forehead the word “disbeliever” in Arabian. I’ve chosen to represent him with the face of Mona Lisa because it’s an image everyone knows, no matter the age you are. I wanted to represent him as something familiar but with his respective attributes.”
Thelema, the Word of the Law
“This one is a representation of the Crowley doctrine as it is written in the book of the law.”
In My Madness I Am The King
“This one is another variation on Kronos myth. It’s a metaphor of the madness and the extinction of the human race; killing children to end this world.”
CVLT: Would you say you are spiritually, politically or socially motivated towards your art?
TACCARDI: “I don’t have any political or social views. I have my own spiritual beliefs; I use art as an interpretation of life and historical events.
“I like theology, occultism, symbolism and everything which is dealing with that, it’s a great source of inspiration. In the middle age, most of people didn’t know how to read – so iconic religious paintings where used as a teaching of the religion. Codes, postures and symbolic signs where all ways used for specific themes. Images can be really powerful, it can explain more than any word.”
CVLT: You have favour portraiture, including self-portraiture. What entices you about including personal figures in your creative process?
TACCARDI: “I do portraiture of people I know or of some historical characters. I did my self portraitures as a catharsis to exorcise my inside demons in a way.
Did you ever contemplate the darkness?
“This self-portrait is an expression of how I felt at this moment. This is about the mourning and when you let your own darkness take you away. I wrote a poem in French for this one:
“Un deuil trop lourd à porter;
Un voile sombre et opaque en guise de prière avortée.
L’œil vif, inique, celui de l’accusateur;
Comme un venin acide, il a volé ton cœur.
Il te berce au sein d’un caveau putride;
Et joue avec tes sens comme cette immonde catin avec ta bite.
La mort rôde, branlante et décharnée;
Aussi grotesque que ce qui fut autrefois scellé.
Le deuil est tel une lame enfouie en plein cœur…
Rejeton de la haine, reflet de la douleur.
Des lambeaux de chair s’amoncellent en un curieux puzzle;
Énigme de mon âme, au final on demeure toujours seul.
“Cachinus Auditur Diaboli”
Ma vie aurait dû être un empire,
Au lieu de ça, crasse, ténèbres et tristes soupirs.”
“I did portraits of my parents as a homage to their memory. My father died last year and my mother three years ago. I wanted to express the silence of their death and the pain of their long agony. They both died from cancer.
“I also did some portraits of my fiancée as a true respect to her. To speak of my self-portraits, I think this is some kind of a biography. The words are replaced by images engraved deeply in my memory with a strong metaphoric sense.”
CVLT: Your personal tastes range towards the more obscure and extreme, for example black metal and other affiliations. How do you draw from the art attached to this musical style?
TACCARDI: “I have a lot of respect for this musical genre, this music creates its own atmosphere. I like to work with black metal bands because the image can really fit the music and influence the listener when he is playing the record. The artwork is really important in this genre because it’s the first thing you see before playing the music.
“Black metal is also very interesting because the music and imagery are independent of the creator; the music becomes an entity with its own rules. Black metal is anonymous. People in this genre act in the same way, they use the same codes (wearing corpse paint, the morbid imagery, the vocals…) so it becomes timeless. Black metal rejects humanity to create something else, more depraved and without hope. To me, it has to represent darkness in its purest form. That’s why I try to create images coming from another world.
“I don’t know so much people doing black metal covers except the well known people like Necrolord, Chris Moyen or Nacht who did the first Ulver covers. Most of my favourite covers in this genre are photographs: Transylvanian Hunger from Darkthrone, Black millennium from Mütiilation, INRI from Sarcofago, The first Bathory, Now Diabolical From Satyricon and To Mega Therion from Celtic Frost.”
CVLT: What is your greatest muse?
TACCARDI: “I find violence really graphic and interesting. It gives a really strong impact to the images. The world is violent so why we can’t we use this violence as an art? Violence in art can be seen as a catharsis for both the artist and people who contemplate these images.
“I’m into the notion of the ‘sublime’ like the philosopher Burke was. Some kind of a mix between terror and fascination in front of the unknown and feared things. Humanity is grinding teeth, the rest is only silence.
“But my greatest muse would be death because there is so many ways to express it – violence, sadness, desolation, silence, religion. The list goes on.”
CVLT: In Australia, your link with Sydney-based outfit Drowning the Light is well-known. How did this collaboration come about?
TACCARDI: “One day I sent an email to Azgorh (Drowning The Light) to ask if he would be interested in some art. I was really glad he said yes because Drowning The Light is really a band I wanted to illustrate. This music is really fantastic and has its own mark.
“I really respect him as a man and as a talented artist. Without him, I would probably not work with other bands as I do now. By now, I’m currently working with Necrophagia, Killjoy black metal project called Haxxan, Hell Militia, Dødkvlt, Drohtnung and some others. Also, some labels contacted me, we’ll see what is coming in the future.”
CVLT: Is there anyone you would like to work with in the future?
TACCARDI: “I wish I could have done a cover for Mütiilation. But generally, if I really like the music, then I’m glad to do an artwork for it. I’ve never worked with a band I don’t really appreciate. It has to be special to touch me and to make me be able to draw something related to it. There is many bands I would like to work with, like S.V.E.S.T, Deathspell Omega, Diapsiquir, Antaeus, Arkhon Infaustus, Burzum…”
CVLT: Many artists talk about their legacy. What do you believe your work says about you?
TACCARDI: “I don’t believe my work will leave a legacy. I mean I’m not Picasso. I just want to express myself and, when people like my art, I feel really honoured.”
Work from the dark and perverted mind of Maxime Taccardi can be viewed at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Maxime-Taccardi-Artworks/283623771702331?ref=ts
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