Most Recent
KITTY BLANDY: (ANIMAL) INSTINCTS
Oct 2008
Irreverent and revealing inter-species sculptures that put a spin on the conventions of portraiture, and new related drawings
Exhibition dates: 23 October - 22 November 2008
Kitty Blandy questions the conventions of subject and materials in this exhibition of anthropomorphic sculptures and drawings. Carefully modeled heads on the bodies of dogs and monkeys address our existential awkwardness and humiliation.
MATERIALS: Blandy uses cast plastic, flocking and foam – more familiar with pound shop trinkets than formal sculpture – to “toy” with the idea of value. The artist’s recognised autographic style (bold, painterly lines that seem deceptively natural) remains patent with her use of flocking in drawings that accompany the display, presenting works one wants to touch.
BACKGROUND: Blandy’s anthropomorphic themes are investigated in a new series of fused forms. Near mythic characters make an appearance; the deranged Grinagog with his perpetual grin and the Kentish Long-tail (of Thomas Becket fame) become hybrid with the artist’s studies of canine frivolity. Blandy’s mixed media sculpture Public Citizen (below) uses elements of both the Grinagog and Kentish Men, presented as a toy-like figure. Such psychic mutations made manifest resonate long after viewing.
Ultimately, Blandy’s investigations have lead to formal sculptural works that engage with Deleuze’s observations of “becoming-animal”. In the artist’s own words:
(ANIMAL) INSTINCTS presents animalism as a form of sensuality, with an underlying doctrine that humans are only animals, or as some might say it, animals are merely human. -Kitty Blandy, October 2008