Images of work-in-progress for Swallow/s sculpture
More to follow...
Saturday, 9 April 2011
Jacob Epstein's Doves
Not long ago I mentioned the series of swallow sculptures I was making to a friend Andrew Lee (Yale/Courtauld). He sent me this lovely image of "Doves" by the famous sculptor Jacob Epstein to which I can see a relationship with my own swallow piece; two beings in one whole, overlapping.
Andrew and I at the afterparty for GALERIE8 Grange Garden Sculpture Commission
juried by Yinka Shonibare amongst others
Interestingly, the doves also look like two penises touching eachother! Phallic and sexual. A beautiful piece of work, I admire this concept. I'm glad to know that somehow, consciously or subconsciously I am in some ways treading in similar thoughtsteps or on a similar page as another great sculptor.
© The estate of Sir Jacob Epstein
Doves 1914-15
Andrew and I at the afterparty for GALERIE8 Grange Garden Sculpture Commissionjuried by Yinka Shonibare amongst others
Interestingly, the doves also look like two penises touching eachother! Phallic and sexual. A beautiful piece of work, I admire this concept. I'm glad to know that somehow, consciously or subconsciously I am in some ways treading in similar thoughtsteps or on a similar page as another great sculptor.
© The estate of Sir Jacob EpsteinDoves 1914-15
"Swallow/s" New Sculpture
Swallow/s (2011)
Prototype 1
Cardboard, Newspaper, Tape and Paperclips
Two birds in one stone.
Dualities. Split Gender. The Male and Female combined.
Two personalities in one body. Split Sexuality; Bi-sexuality, Pansexuality.
Two halves, a whole.
Two lovers, one collision.
Dead and Alive.
Prototype 1
Cardboard, Newspaper, Tape and Paperclips
Two birds in one stone.
Dualities. Split Gender. The Male and Female combined.
Two personalities in one body. Split Sexuality; Bi-sexuality, Pansexuality.
Two halves, a whole.
Two lovers, one collision.
Dead and Alive.
Thursday, 7 April 2011
Less Thought More Action
Today, I'm happy to have been born.
1) Isn't failure just as important as success? Some of the best books, the best journals, the best works are compiled before the days when an artist or writer gets given success. And very often the great failures are better than the successes. They are the diamonds in the dirt that haven't be found or won't be found. We are all born and live beautiful lives. Don't let it become a silly sperm race.
2) Insanity=Why?
If we keep asking ourselves why we make work and what we make work for or about we will eventually go into the madhouse! "Why?" can be asked repeatedly to the infinite point of insanity. Why the materials?..why are you saying this?..why make this point? etc. etc.
Perhaps rule #1 of an artist's job is not to question things too much. So "why?" when a youngster gets to artschool do all they want to do is make them question their work constantly? Whilst people must learn to challenge themselves, they must also be careful of falling into this trap, surely?
Let the art critics spin themselves into thick webs. Too much thought and critical theory reduces an artist's actions and creativity. Keep it simple. Get back on track. Enjoy the aesthetics and the craft of your skill, without pondering too much serious thought upon the subject matter. Let a critic write you away with your subject matter, let the critic do away with your skill, your talent, your usefulness, let a critic enhance or destroy your contribution to the sperm race!
Just kick back, relax, enjoy the sunshine and make the work you wanna.
Yes, today I'm happy to have been born!
Thursday, 31 March 2011
To Cure the Soul By Means of the Senses: LGBT Drawings
To Cure The Soul By Means Of The Senses, 2011
3 x A2 Pencil and Cum on Drawing Paper
Image © Leo Cohen 2011
A triptych of stylised drawings exploring LGBT identity, sexual icons in juxtaposition with a six- point star. It presents three cases for desire, which becomes appealable to heterosexual/lesbian/homosexual/bisexual/transsexual audiences.
I often use sperm as a visual metaphor for sexuality. Within the star segments each sperm leads or chases towards a hole in the intersections. I drew this to symbolise the fact that every hole is sacred and beautiful and that without each and every hole of the human body one would not be able to live. They should be loved, cherished and understood as should each person and their sexual preference. The drawings offer a form of sexual spirituality becoming accepted within the boundaries of the six-point star.
This work is an ongoing series in which I have created marriages and beautiful spaces for different sets of values to join harmoniously together. Nietzsche claims that art "is more powerful than knowledge because it desires life, whereas knowledge attains as its final goal - only annihilation". Through these artworks I hope to build a powerful home for what to some might seem like oppositions to exist. For Nietzsche, oppositions as we see them "do not exist in themselves" but express "only variations in degree that from a certain perspective appear to be opposites". We should not see things in the world as oppositions and different, but rather as "transitions".
Whilst Nietzsche challenges the basis of the subject/object distinction, later becoming important to the field of Semiotics and especially "the crisis of representation", I am also interested in the misappropriation/misuse of/and education surrounding symbols.
3 x A2 Pencil and Cum on Drawing Paper
Image © Leo Cohen 2011
A triptych of stylised drawings exploring LGBT identity, sexual icons in juxtaposition with a six- point star. It presents three cases for desire, which becomes appealable to heterosexual/lesbian/homosexual/bisexual/transsexual audiences.
I often use sperm as a visual metaphor for sexuality. Within the star segments each sperm leads or chases towards a hole in the intersections. I drew this to symbolise the fact that every hole is sacred and beautiful and that without each and every hole of the human body one would not be able to live. They should be loved, cherished and understood as should each person and their sexual preference. The drawings offer a form of sexual spirituality becoming accepted within the boundaries of the six-point star.
This work is an ongoing series in which I have created marriages and beautiful spaces for different sets of values to join harmoniously together. Nietzsche claims that art "is more powerful than knowledge because it desires life, whereas knowledge attains as its final goal - only annihilation". Through these artworks I hope to build a powerful home for what to some might seem like oppositions to exist. For Nietzsche, oppositions as we see them "do not exist in themselves" but express "only variations in degree that from a certain perspective appear to be opposites". We should not see things in the world as oppositions and different, but rather as "transitions".
Whilst Nietzsche challenges the basis of the subject/object distinction, later becoming important to the field of Semiotics and especially "the crisis of representation", I am also interested in the misappropriation/misuse of/and education surrounding symbols.
Sunday, 27 February 2011
Murmurs I: Things We Must
We should learn how to drive for various reasons
We should own a few bunnys
We must find new forms of education to chew on
We must love Sayaka Ganz who recycles plastic junk and cutlery into beautiful works of art
We must forget about gravity and the things that pull us down for fuck's sake
We must understand the reasons why love isn't always there for us
We must all embrace sexy bannisters when given the chance
We must try to lose weight before Easter festivities arrive
We must travel the plastic bags of love with installation artist Sarah Sze
We must all have sex with Jeff Koons
We must admire the green giants who grow overblueseas
We must free ourselves from the boxes and the system (artist Tom Friedman)
We must learn to love machines before they learn to hate us
We must all get fucked!
We must love unknowingly, always two stitches at a time
We must all idolise James Dean
We must not fear our anxieties and our paranoia
A Perk of Life: Jennifer Taylor's "Ground Control" at The Wapping Project
This month I assisted Jennifer Taylor (Flowers Gallery) on her new installation at The Wapping Project. (Christian Ferreira Projects). Here are some pictures from this little perk of artistic life.
Chair painted white
Air dough sausages and flour balloons
wrapped up rings/hoops and the backstage studio workshop
Having fun transporting the Hydroball on Techymeister's van.
The lovely jobs of spraying all the objects white either using spray paint or the compressor/air gun.
This became a cool and fun job for me and it was great because I could begin to measure the progress from what was not white, to what became white.
Often than not, certain objects had particular surfaces that the paint became difficult to stick to and needed a large number of coats and spraying.
Rotating on jobs. Dave Chalkley, a sculpture technician.
Spray cans
Balls balls balls...
The Techymeister's van...
Myself...
Dave...
Eva...
Jennifer Taylor smiling on the important day of installation.
We all get stuck in. Gemma Butterworth is also here.
Almost there. Finally the work is all complete. Josh from the Wapping Project helped with the hanging using the harness. Next stop was the private view and a chance to enjoy all the hard work that had gone into making and curating this adventurous space oddity. Here are some pictures of the work completed.
Chair painted white
Air dough sausages and flour balloons
wrapped up rings/hoops and the backstage studio workshop
Having fun transporting the Hydroball on Techymeister's van.
The lovely jobs of spraying all the objects white either using spray paint or the compressor/air gun.
This became a cool and fun job for me and it was great because I could begin to measure the progress from what was not white, to what became white.
Often than not, certain objects had particular surfaces that the paint became difficult to stick to and needed a large number of coats and spraying.
Rotating on jobs. Dave Chalkley, a sculpture technician.
Spray cans
Balls balls balls...
The Techymeister's van...
Myself...
Dave...
Eva...
Jennifer Taylor smiling on the important day of installation.
We all get stuck in. Gemma Butterworth is also here.
Almost there. Finally the work is all complete. Josh from the Wapping Project helped with the hanging using the harness. Next stop was the private view and a chance to enjoy all the hard work that had gone into making and curating this adventurous space oddity. Here are some pictures of the work completed.
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