Art that’s a seasonal feast for the senses

They look like a collection of magically troll-like characters taken from the pages of a childhood fairytale.

Featuring wildly peculiar facial features created using a mix of fruit, flora and fauna, each one represents one of the different seasons.

An aubergine hangs from the hair of one, while another wears a crown of thorny branches with a patch of moss for a beard.

The set of four monumental sculpturesby American artist and filmmaker Philip Haas are currently on display as part of the Four Seasons exhibition.

Bizarre and fantastically creative, they make for an incongruous addition to the elegant, manicured grounds of London’s Dulwich Picture Gallery.

The installation is the first ever public display of all four works following their completion.

Constructed from fibreglass, the 4.5-metre-high sculptures are inspired by Giuseppe Arcimboldo’s Renaissance paintings of the four seasons – Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter.

The 16^th century Italian painter came to fame for his creative and imaginative portrait heads made of objects such as fruits, vegetables, flowers, fish, and books.

In his latest exhibition, Haas’s colourful Summer sculpture is adorned with a garland of flowers and a rose for his chin and cheeks.

In contrast, his elegy to Winter features the rough withering skin of an ageing tree trunk, with a ragged crown of branches and a mossy green beard sprouting from his chin.

The riotous Spring, on the other hand, features an artichoke as a buttonhole and aubergines hanging from his hair, while Autumn is given caterpillars for eyebrows and blackberries for his eyes.

Haas has had a distinguished career, both in the film and art world.

He studied art history at Harvard and is best-known for his 1995 Oscar-nominated film Angels and Insects, based on the novella by A. S. Byatt and starring Kristin Scott Thomas.

He has also made several documentaries on subjects ranging from Australian Aboriginal ground painters to the funerary sculptors of Madagascar.

In conjunction with the exhibition the gallery is running a ‘Foodie Face’ art competition.

Participants are asked to create their own self portrait using food, including fruits, vegetables, homemade meals, pizzas, sweets – even a full English breakfast.

The winner will be selected by public vote.

* The Four Seasons is on display at Dulwich Picture Gallery in London until September 16.