In his long-standing research on the male gender, Christophe Canato uses the medium of photography. In the past Canato favoured minimalist compositions but for the first time with the Homo Faber series his works seem messy and complex.
The digital collages composed of photographs from Canato's image bank combined with other existing images create patchworks that show fragments of male bodies. They include human skeleton and anatomy imagery, flora, wildlife, religious and political symbols as well as medical objects such as lobotomy tools and skulls damaged by this medical intervention. The judge’ wig and religious symbols represent the authority. The glitter and high heels represent creativity and decadence.
Each work from this series has a botanical name as an under title. In his work Homo Faber, Siguë Canato’s digital collage refers to botany and anthropology, revealing human bodies in metamorphosis as if to remind us of where we all come from. Siguë is the French name for the poisonous Hemlock, a toxic weed that’s deadly if consumed.
Through is work Canato questions the notion of belonging or rejection and the status that man is supposed to hold in society. In Latin literature, Appius Claudius Caecus uses term Home Faber in his Sententiæ, referring to the ability of man to control his destiny and what surrounds him: Homo faber suae quisque fortunae ("Every man is the artifex of his destiny").
