In 'Danse Macabre', Fantich & Young conjure a digitally rendered spectacle where Death leads a procession of military fifers and drummers through a technicolour dreamscape. Poppy the Majorette and Drummer Boy lead a spectral band of fallen soldiers in ceremonial regalia adorned with human teeth, hair, bones, poppies and weaponry. Blurring ritual and horror, the work reflects on war and the darker side of the human condition.
Inspired by Holbein’s 'Danse Macabre', Bruegel’s The Triumph of Death and Goya’s The Disasters of War, it stages a victory march where Death is the sole victor. Animated in Unreal Engine with motion capture, it continues the duo’s exploration of conflict, hierarchy, imperialism, colonialism, winners and losers.
Mariana Fantich (Ukraine) and Dominic Young (UK) are London-based artists collaborating since 2008 as Fantich & Young.
Working across sculpture, installation and digital media, they investigate how conflict, power and social structures shape identity, ritual and collective behaviour. Their practice explores competition, hierarchy, imperialism and colonialism, winners and losers, invaders and the invaded.
Combining craftsmanship with experimental technologies, Fantich & Young create immersive and often unsettling works that transform historical narratives into vivid, poetic and critically engaged experiences.
Their work examines parallels between social and natural evolution, Darwinism, Social Darwinism and Economic Darwinism.