Man Freezes Alongside Icy Painting in Surreal Self-Portrait Sculpture

If an artwork could ever give you a chill, it’s a sculpture by Laurent Pernot. His piece titled Self Portrait Face to a Winter Canvas features a life-sized replica of the Paris-based artist as he stands in front of a framed snowy scene.

While that might sound innocuous, the artwork has a strange and surreal twist—the wintery mix is not just contained in the picture. Faux snow coats the figure and wood frame, as icicles dangle from the tip of his nose and hat.

Pernot has installed his piece in a gallery setting, and the surrounding indoor environment doesn’t have the same frigidness.

It’s as if the snow and ice are merely figments of the statue’s imagination, showing us that mentally, he’s off in a much colder place.

This idea, that reality and fantasy can coexist, is at the core of Pernot’s work. “His creations recurrently revolve around the notions of the visible and invisible, time and the confusions of memory,” his website states. Self Portrait is the visual representation of mind and matter.

Via My Modern Met, This Isn’t Happiness