Selvportræt som Jeanne d’arc

Alexander Tovborg has created a series of monotypes depicting the French saint Joan of Arc.
Joan of Arc, who grew up in France during the Hundred Years’ War, started hearing voices as a young girl. These voices developed into an urgent prophetic revelation for her to save France from the English domination. Joan of Arc was put in charge of an army who, with the young girl’s fighting spirit, freed the city of Orléans. After unsuccessful attempts to regain more land, Joan of Arc was captured and burned at the stake by the English, accused of heresy and acting as a man. The Latin expression amor fati [eng. love of fate] describes an individual accepting the events of life imposing on her or him. Everything that happens, good and evil, is understood as destiny. For Alexander Tovborg, Joan of Arc is a clear example of a person fulfilling her destiny by living it fully.
Tovborg has not left permanent marks on the printing plate but painted directly on its surface. Monotypes cannot be repeated. However, Tovborg continued working with the traces of color left on the plate — the so-called “ghost.” Color traces from the first motif keep adding a flickering, almost magical, blaze to the subsequent images of Joan of Arc.