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Fascynowały go kobiety o obfitych kształtach, do których pragnął się upodobnić, przebierając się w uszyte przez siebie stroje. Swoje ciało traktował jak medium sztuki: jadł cukier, żeby przytyć do zdjęć, robił dziesiątki powtórzeń tego samego ujęcia, by uzyskać idealny kadr.
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It was at the hospital that Henel created his first works: drawings that featured erotic themes; red-blue pencil on paper. His practice also embraced outfits of his own making that were supposed to transform him into his ideal of beauty – a corpulent woman. Fascinated by photography, Henel created hundreds of photographs, for which he posed in his own costumes. Only 88 prints have been preserved until the present day. The exhibition marks the first public display of the originals of these works. Henel used photographs as patterns for textiles, which he meticulously copied onto graph paper. Renown came with his thirteen large-scale tapestries, created in hand-tied technique, mainly with erotic and magical underpinning. In these works, naked figures of women and Henel himself appear amongst insects, birds and animals that bear symbolic meanings: owl, eagle, snake, toad, bat, cat.
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