Year: 2014-2016
Medium: mixed media on wood panel
Dimensions: 300 x 410 x 27.5 cm (118 1/8 x 161 3/8 x 10 7/8 in.)
Acquired from SBI Art Auction, 2022
Polia is a character from the book “Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (Poliphilo's Strife of Love in a Dream),” attributed to Francesco Colonna, and known in Japan through the translation of Tatsuhiko Shibusawa. Indeed, it is Polia with whom the protagonist Poliphilo falls in love within a dream. After some trials and tribulations, his love is requited in the dream world, but the story ends before he can take his love into reality. While growing up, Buffe was heavily influenced by Japanese tokusatsu, manga, and animation, which are widely known even in France, and he does not try to hide that in his works. In this piece, the profile of Polia’s poised face is enclosed in a cameo-like decorative circular frame (a cartouche), with her long nose resembling that of a fox or a dog. When this work was first shown in Buffe’s solo exhibition “The Dream of Polifilo” (2014) at the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, the black coloring that can be seen in the current collection was only partially done, and the large black background was absent. It was only later that the coloring and background were added.
