The Telmo Pieper and Miel Krutzmann duo TelmoMiel (who joke that they look like Dutch Viking brothers) have just completed two breathtaking murals in Boulogne, France. Their beautiful hyper-realistic pieces grace many epic walls around the globe, and these ultra-talented artists are recognized as some of the greatest in their field. The ingenuity of fusing their independent visions to work as a single entity is almost as astonishing as the final result of each of their creations.
Since the outbreak of Covid-19 they have been home for a while like everybody else, and have been focusing on their Sober Collective studio work in Rotterdam as well as other projects close to home. Naturally, they were eager to finally travel again and do what they love most.
The first of their two Boulogne murals is ‘Le Pêcheur’ (French for fisherman). The idea behind this piece is about being a provider: both for ourselves and others. The artists say they’ve been reflecting on the importance of this topic over recent months.
At first look, I read the tone of this piece as a disturbing one. The humor sometimes present in their work is undoubtedly absent. This is the third occasion I’ve written about the duo’s work, and many of their murals have a much lighter feel. The dark parts of the mural clearly reflect the universal gloom of the pandemic.
On closer inspection though, there is also a feeling of hope and positivity in this piece. The boy seems to be doing a decent job of sourcing food. Probably not the food most people would usually go for, but he’s digging deep and doing what he needs to in order to provide sustenance. What a powerful way for TelmoMiel to express our need to be resourceful during these uncertain times.
The blending of colors and contrasting bright pop of orange fish against the brown and grey murkiness is no less beautiful than I’d expect of their work. The dreamlike beauty is a constant.
The pair say, “Recent paintings contain abstraction of reality, attempting to make the viewer see subjects with a different eye; they grow into using multiple images, layered over one another. By cutting away a top layer, another comes forward to complete the design. This provides a convenient abstraction, but the intent is more so to create a sort of marriage between figurative parts. Pieces that weren’t normally seen as one, but now complete each other in weird and beautiful ways.”
