WeegeeWeegee 'Souls of the Unrepentant' - An Exhibition of Collages

An Exhibition of Collages
Curated by Francesco Romano Petillo

A surreal journey inspired by dreams - an amalgamation of childhood fantasies fuelled by passion for anthropology, myths and fables

ʻSouls of the Unrepentantʼ brings together a collection of new collages by WeegeeWeegee in the unusual and stunning setting of an original Victorian underground menʼs lavatory in Londonʼs Kennington. It presents a celebration and retrieval of the dead coming to life through the medium of collage. 

WW becomes a time traveller collecting and assembling souvenirs of original 19th century cartes de visite of studio photographs and transports them into a 21st century dimension of quasi psycho-geographic self-portraits. They introduce a surreal Freudian journey inspired by dreams, Victorian characters and travellers as well as an amalgamation of childhood fantasies fuelled by passion for archaeology, ancient sagas, myths, fables, Gothic fantasy, and a fascination for the Catholic church.
Masks strike chords of 70ʼs horror movies such as ʻHalloweenʼ, juxtaposed with a love for ethnography and anthropology. By using historic and forgotten materials, these once important objects of identity come back to life, and those now nameless players are memorialised and imbued with new histories. Collages built on prints of erotic landscapes inspired by Bataille reveal the secret lusts and lives of molluscs, plants and volcanoes in the rapture of ʻla petite mortʼ – celebrating the constant interchange for lust of life with the inevitability of death.