MOOT: MOOTART PROFILE : LEO YAMZ

Tuesday, 7th of April, 2015

Love At First Sight (2015)

Second MOOT art profile looks at the work of Bruxelles based artist Leo Yamz
Images with elements, symbols, keys and colour in different combination's achieve different results in the brain of the human being. Images of order, serenity and meaningfulness play as the antithesis of chaos, turmoil and meaninglessness. The endless combinations create new reactions, the same combinations create the same reactions. The search and finding of and for new reactions, new feelings from various different nuances achieved in the combining of elements can titillate as well as repulse. With sturdy combinations new revelations materialise, images with a more ambiguous nature lead to digestations that result in new growths that formulate inside the lobes of the human cortex. These exist deep inside of what is known as dark matter or what is more commonly known as the twilight zone or also what can be found as a benign brain tumour.

Blower Bubble World

I watched Louis Malles Black Moon recently and felt such a ethereal resonance formulate; In the film to escape from "the war" the protagonist retreats to a farm house where she escapes into a fantasy world, a kind of Alice In Wonderland type scenario unfolds in the lovely house and surroundings. There is something very milky going on here, I could smell throughout much of the film, fine milk dust. A good image to someone Is the right set of combinations in the elements of the picture, when combined correctly to the viewers sense of cosmic ease dolphins are released and they foam over to the point where they can almost smell what is in the image, a form of pure immersion.

The Shamanic Dance Of Saint Anthony

Waking up one day after a night of sleeping I booted up my laptop turning it on. I saw that artist Ann Van Der Linden was linking to a tumblr blog page that showed up on my facebook news feed. Captivated by the tumbnails I hovered the mouse over clicking.

The page I clicked on documented art work by artist Leo Yamz. Yamz's work taps into the sanctity of our more fantastical times In primitive-base-absurdity. His work filled with dark humour, iconographic aesthetic 's reminiscent of the Old Testament, Alchemy drawings and furthermore into the subconscious of modern surrealist imagery. I found similar sensibilities in an old Graphis 101 my Father owned when I was a child with drawings from the late great Roland Topor; they were quite musty black and white images held together with yellowing tape, Topors images made a tremendous impression on my young mind. Yamz's drawings seemed to be coloured digitally and lit up by a computer screen but regardless the format the elements occupy a unique mind-scape making a similar impression In the way of Topor and Malle.

The images created by Yamz are filled with magic, his world based in oddity and expression of thought that conjured an inherent playfulness for human madness executed with graphic prowess. Making the right connections with my lobes a pleasant pathway found when rising from a day slumber and scrolling through his images with elder stumps Yamz's work stunk of something many times more delectable than the nightly curds.

Stephen Morton (6/4/15)

Apprentice Alchemist

-Leo Yamz will be showing his entire zine collection for the first time this Spring at "KABINET" In Bruxelles. (https://lekabinetbxl.wordpress.com/

- "Plastic Soul" - is an illustration for an up-coming edition project related to "Tiny Leg" (http://tinyleg.com/) a pyscho-rap art group based in New York City.