2014
Antique steel Islamic Helmet, Latex Paint
60 x 40 x 40cm
A time-travelling visit via this spectacular work that extraordinarily forces the realities of our past to reconcile with our current aesthetics. Utilizing as its core a Mid 15th-16th Century warrior helmet that had once proudly paraded the royal emblems of the mighty arsenal of Istanbul, capital of Turkey's Ottoman Dynasty (circa 1453-1922), years later after the politics and fashions of the day were replaced with other ideologies, one of these headpieces found new life in the studio of one of France's premier artists of the Orientalism genre, Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824-1904), who found inspiration in this relic of battle armor to paint his stirring fantasies that influenced the European magical perception of the mystical East. Now, Parnes' stirring reinvention of this storied helmet of arms & armor permits this antiquity of power to enter the contemporary with peace.