David Altmejd at the MAC

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I started using that [werewolf head] three years ago. At the beginning, it was just an alternative to the human body. I made a chopped-up werewolf. Body art is so familiar, in terms of experience. By making a monster leg, it has something of a familiar feeling but there is an added level of weirdness. Then I was very interested in the werewolf because of its complexity, its symbolic potential. It represents both good and evil, human and animal, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde — extremes on both sides. Every time I talk about my work I use the word “energy” a lot, not in a New Age kind of way. The werewolf head with crystals on it is an energy-generating object. A man transforms into the werewolf, which is the most intense transformation, physically and mentally. The werewolf goes from one state, man, to a totally opposite state, animal, in a matter of minutes or even seconds. In movies it always happens in, like, thirty seconds. It even looks painful.

Plaster, resin, paint, synthetic hair, jewellery, glitter