Our artistic director, Jonathan Delachaux has been working on his recent art piece for the past 6 months. The piece is titled ‘la pêche miraculeuse’ which is French for ‘The Miraculous Catch’. His artwork is featured in the heART@Geneva exhibition in the St-Pierre Cathedral in Geneva. This piece will be on display until October 31st, 2022.
Jonathan’s art piece shows the multidimensional presence that a metaverse can have as the creativity a metaverse inspires spans far beyond the constraints of our new digital landscape.
Jonathan’s Inspiration
When Jonathan was asked to be a part of the heART@Geneva exhibition in Geneva he started to think about what he wanted to create. His idea for this artwork draws inspiration from various historical and religious references. However, the first source of inspiration was our metaverse island he has been creating for the past 12 years, Tchan-Zâca. Jonathan has painted the lake in Tchan-Zâca into this artwork and this is the first time that it has been revealed to the public in pictorial form. The lake is the background and setting for this piece of art.
Jonathan’s inspiration for the faces that you see floating in lake in this painting comes from the iconoclasm of 1535 in Geneva. The iconoclasm made a clean sweep of faces from churches and various religious sites as the religion in Geneva turned from Catholic to Protestant. His particular reference is ‘Pêche Miraculeuse’ by Konrad Witz which was artwork that sat prominently in the choir of the St-Pierre Cathedral. During the iconoclasm, the bright colors painted on the walls and ceiling were removed, the cathedral’s most conspicuous carvings were hammered and on Witz’s famous painting, the faces were scratched out (all but one). So, in the lake Jonathan has reimagined and painted these faces that were erased during the iconoclasm.
Jonathan has used this painting to share more on the story and lore behind Tchan-Zâca. The story behind these faces is that these faces are floating in the Tchan-Zâca lake now, as this is where they have taken refugee, after their erasure during the iconoclasm. This painting therefore shows the first wave of immigration that occurred in Tchan-Zâca. These refugees were also some of the first to receive visas for our metaverse, Tchan-Zâca.
Jonathan’s Process
This artwork was made by painting with acrylic paint on plexiglass and was inspired by the stained glass art that you commonly see in churches. Jonathan used black acrylic paint and painted varying layers of thickness of black paint onto the plexiglass to create depth and shading on the plexiglass. This technique also meant that without light the artwork would appear to be a black painting. However, when illuminated, the faces and landscape painted onto the plexiglass is revealed. You can see this phenomenon in the YouTube video linked above.
The artwork has a light attached to it so every 153 seconds the entire image is illuminated. As this piece pays homage to the church and biblical references, the number 153 was intentionally selected because in the Gospel of John (chapter 21:1–14) there is a narrative of the miraculous catch of 153 fish as the third appearance of Jesus after his resurrection.
Below you can see the map of where the heART@Geneva participants art pieces are located. Jonathan’s artwork is located at site #3 on the map.
Jonathan has created multiple inspiring and unique art pieces and this artwork is no exception. His next showcase will be at the Mapping Festival in Geneva from November 3rd to November 11th where he will continue exploring Tchan-Zâca through art and exhibitions in the physical world. This will be the first group show of the “Tchan-Zacans”, or “les Tchan-Zaciens” in French, which is a collective of dozens of artists working in Tchan-Zâca.
Follow the links below to learn more about Jonathan Delachaux, his art and our metaverse, Tchan-Zâca:
- A short autobiography on Jonathan Delachaux and his artistic journey.
- Explore more about the story behind Jonathan’s characters here.
- Check out more press about Jonathan and his work here
- Learn more about Tchan-Zâca here.
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