Coercion [2012]
gunpowder, graphite, acrylic, and wood
70″x60″x14″

My newest piece, Coercion, is based upon a sculpture by Giambologna. In the piece Hercules –a demi-god set out on a series of trials to prove his worth– smites a centaur, Nessus. It seems very Wild West that Hercules is essentially riding a horse while killing it.

On a more formal note, I have tried to pull from the power, mastery, and seduction of such a well crafted sculpture, further confusing the issue of beautified, culturally permissable violence by applying it to Southern principles of romance and violence. The figure of Hercules has been converted into a pattern that I created based upon the decoratively engraved breach of a rifle. This both grounds the pattern in a tradition of beautifying weapons and violence while altering the brutality of the figure. Not that it is necessarily lessens brutality, but it somehow subverts it, bringing to mind the 1908 Adolf Loos phrase “Ornament is a crime…” (I think the full quote is “Ornament is a crime against the national economy,” which is even more odd, but I need to double check that.)

I will probably create a few more pieces based upon this specific work, continuing to use the old fashioned buttressing structures found at old drive in movies and advertising billboards to both flatten and support the image.

18 Oct This entry was published on October 18, 2012 at 8:16 pm. It’s filed under Art and tagged art, centaur, coercion, decorative, giambologna, gunpowder, hercules, pattern, rifle. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.