François-Xavier and Claude Lalanne The Weeper 1986

One day a beautiful boy named Narcissus unwittingly fell in love with his own image reflected on the surface of a spring. Languishing away in unrequited love, Narcissus died and has been reincarnated as the Narcissus flower, which demurely gives bloom to lovely flowers. Just like Narcissus of Greek mythology, this angel is leaning her cheek toward her own face reflected on the water’s surface. The lover on the water’s surface never replies, and her flowing tears would make the image disappear. Yet even though she laments for her unobtainable love, it appears as if her face were smiling somewhat. Under the idea that “art must exist in life,” the creators, a married couple named François-Xavier and Claude Lalanne, worked on pieces in a variety of different fields, such as furniture shaped like animals, until the husband, François-Xavier, passed away in 2008. In this work using water, the contrast between the stone face that shines white and cold and its hair inspired by vegetation serves to accentuate the world of love’s intoxication.