[:en]Victor Seiche (Victor Skull Art) is a Romanian artist who started carving skulls years ago. Going through difficult times he chose to teach himself the intricacies of carving. Victor’s works are quite different from other conventional mediums of art, but fantastic and somewhat very mysterious. He has taken the simple beauty of a skull in nature and revived it, going beyond the regular reconstruction of a dry skull postmortem to shape unique sculptures.

Take me through your journey into art. What is your background and how did you find yourself at the place you currently inhabit artistically?


My story into art only started in early 2016, after a few hiccups in my life, problems with the law and all kinds of trouble. I was in a bad place and needed to kill time, and it so happened that a friend had a boar head which he wanted to throw away, so I asked him to give it to me as I wanted to give a shot at cleaning the skull , after that I kept it in my home. A few days later I was walking through a store and I found a cheap carving machine, as I felt a need to express myself, I bought it and carved the skull. Really enjoyed the idea so I kept doing this, got more skulls and carved them, always trying to get better and better, always learning more along the way. I am an outsider, I have no formal education in art school or university.

Where do you take these skulls from?

A lot of them I find near woods, in ravines, around animal farms, shepherds usually throw away the carcasses of animals that died of a disease around the area they raise their animals in since the meat can not be eaten, so I scour the place around looking for dead animals. Some I also buy directly from farmers that I got to know while doing this whenever their sheep or cows die, others I buy from collectors and from sites like ebay or etsy. All of them I clean myself, completely, this is something that you have to enjoy to be able to do as there can not be any meat or skin left in any part of the skull for it to be shipped internationally, so it requires a lot of patience. 
Ego Death

 

Tension
I abide by the ideas that we are primal beings, we must act on instinct and on a natural path through life.
Separation
One might say a memorable piece of art should have an influence on human experience. Should we see art as a psychological journey?

Yes, very much so, art must be viewed from your own prism of reality, see how it makes you feel and think. It is an exploration into your own mind, to analyze yourself and the way you think, the way you see reality, society, humanity, our nature and existence, what your opinion is of different aspects of life can be changed from viewing an artwork, it is not so much about the artist as it is about the people who see the work, how it affects them is the most important result of an art piece. 

Is there a specific philosophy or worldview underlying your work?

Yes, I believe we humans have gone astray from our natural existence, we have embraced technology, a false society, fads, and sickening aspects of an unnatural existence birthed from consumerism. We are ignoring our own origins and all aspects of a natural life in lieu of what is advertised for us to think and to want from life, this is in my opinion one of the main reasons for the suffering endured by most people in this age. So many people today are affected by an array of psychological problems like depression and anxiety, because we have turned a blind eye to our nature, if we like it or not, deep down our minds work on a purely primal level, we must listen to our simple basic instincts in order to be happy. Further, through this ignorance of our own nature and the emancipation of the idea that we are above animals, we have been conditioned in ignoring even basic aspects of natural existence itself, like death, a concept now barred in the back of our minds, seen as something unnatural and evil, when it is one of the most fundamental aspects of life, the only truth. What we eat every single day, what we wear, basic things that keep us alive and comfortable, are results of death, animals die in colossal numbers for us to be fed and to be kept warm another day, yet we ignore this completely, not even thinking for a second that a life was sacrificed for my comfort today. 

Can you speak on your relationship with alchemy, the occult, and spirituality?

As my spirituality goes, I abide by the ideas that we are primal beings, we must act on instinct and on a natural path through life. Most of us ask ourselves why are animals so happy, and the answer is that they are free to do what they want, but are we not the same? We have put shackles on ourselves through this modern life, though in reality they are inexistent, we only choose to not be free, do not follow society and its absurd laws, what is popular, what others are doing, do not follow the way it is progressing into a perversion and an insult to nature, do what you want to do is the only law, and that will make you happy. 

What is your favorite part of being an artist?

My favorite part is simply freedom, to express what I want to, to bring people to what I consider as good ideas, this gives me a reason to do better each and every day in everything I do .

Where do you find your inspiration?

Partly from my own mind, and partly from the world around me, for example in some works I use textures found on manmade objects which i carve on the skulls, I find with these patterns of textures that they bring forth the idea of our impact on nature in a stronger way. 

 

Toward the ideal

 

Elil

 

El-ahrariah

How long does it usually take for you to finish a skull? And what equipment do you use?

It depends on the size of a skull and what I am carving on it, some skulls like rabbits take a day, others such as cow skulls will take around 2 weeks, big ram skulls usually about a week or so. As tools go I use dental micromotors and dental burrs for most of my work, the NSK Ultimate XL is the tool I use the most as it is incredibly precise and of high quality build, a cheaper micromotor, Marathon 600, for strapping out bigger chunks of bone, and for really big material removal I use a powerful suspended motor and straight biax machines. 

Does the conception come first or does the piece evolve naturally – do you have a clear idea of what it will be before you start to make it?

I always have an idea of what I will be doing and how it will look before I carve because it’s a one shot deal with bone carving, as I can not “un-carve” something, so it is never a good idea for me to wing it and see what happens. But as I work on something the idea might change slightly from what i originally intended if I find it is possible to accomplish it, if not, I’ll reserve the new idea for another piece. 

Whose work has influenced you the most?

Zdzislaw Beksinski, Damien Hirst, Jan fabre, and I also pay a homage to H.R. Giger once in a while through carving biomechanical looking textures, I think the concept and visual effect really fits on skulls. 

Do you listen to music when working? If so, what music do you listen to?

Yes, mostly relaxing music as I need to keep patience and focus while working, so a lot of ambiental music, mongolian throat singing like Altai Kai and La Tcha-Pou, classical music such as Rachmaninoff, Brahms, Holst and bands like Earth, Owl Oxidant, Om, Nadja etc.

Find and buy his works on: Facebook
All photos copyrights: Victor Seiche
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Nicoleta Raicu

Editor-in-Chief at Cultartes Magazine
Still can't tell exactly my origins because of my suspiciously ‘Chinese eyes’.