Deftones 2022

Deftones #2, Deftones #3, both canvas with vinyl eyes protruding from tapestry made by Vladimir Boson, give us a look that leaves us unsure whether they are friendly or compassionate. You might think they’re brave, a bit dumb, but at times they seem to be shot through with a kind of mathematical gumption that amounts to genius. One thinks of Spyro the dragon, the video-game star, coming to pierce a cocaine-chic design by Gaetano Pesce. They could also appear in Bikini Bottom, the marine city of SpongeBob, with their Bertrand Lavier cartoonish allure. But the titles put us on the track of Deftones fandom. The Sacramento nu-metal band’s bassist Chi Cheng was left in a coma following a severe car accident in November of 2008 and died in 2013. Their latest album is adorned with the same look between tenderness and torpor that seems to belong to the late musician. There are superb men who are humbled by the elevation and the decline of their rivals. Chi Cheng, another soft hero?

– Pierre-Alexandre Mateos & Charles Teyssou, Milo, 2021 (extrait)