Antwerp City Collection

For The landscape stares back, Ignace Cami began from landscapes he found in second-hand shops that are knotted together with wool. These are a typical examples of home craft, a local and often very intensive form of cultural production. Cami is also interested in the back of these textile works. Whereas the front depicts an idyllic, nostalgic, pre-industrial landscape, the back shows the maker’s toil and plodding. Cami cuts horned masks from the back of the landscapes. The masks refer to half-human creatures from folktales that usually express the fascinations and fears within a community. The specific characteristics of the landscape also often play an important role in the nature of the stories that arise. After scanning the back of the landscapes, the images are enlarged and screen printed on burlap with puffing ink creating a kind of trompe-l’oeil effect.