SCULPTURAL HEADS
TITLE: BENJAMIN ZEPHANIAH CYBORG
January 2023
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The creation of this work was influenced by the image of cyborg heads from the anime animation Ghosts in the Shell and the anime animation Akira (1998) directed by Katsuhiro Otomo.
It was styled in the influence of Nicholas Schöffer’s CYSPP1, work. It made use of computer motherboards (appropriated object) to produce an encased artificial intelligent head (Readymade).
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Hyperrealism portrait pencil on paper is influenced by the monochrome portraits by Ken Ohara in his book titled “One” published by Taschen; and the hyperrealism drawings of the artist Dirk Dzimirsky. Both artists, through photography and pencil drawings respectively, capture the very essence, emotion of what it means to be human .
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The work questions how we define what it means to be human. Artificial Intelligence can, reportedly exhibit critical thinking, problem solving and managing human interactions. But can it, above all other abilities, express creativity? This faculty, perhaps is the last bastion of human exclusivity.
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The portrait is of Benjamin Zephaniah, a black artist (musician and poet) who went from being an angry teenager involved in street rioting to becoming an artist who used his work to address deep social issues of racism and equality.
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EXHIBITED
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2024,
18 June - 18 August 2024
Wohl Central Hall, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London, England
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LITERATURE
Roy, Amit (2024).
Summer Exhibition Makes Space for British Asian Artists,
Eastern Eye, Issue 1768, Friday, June 21, 2024, p. 32-33​
ISSN: 0965-464X
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Royal Academy of Arts (2024).
RA Summer Exhibition List of Works,
RA Publications, p.224
ISBN: 978-1-915815-13-2​​​​
TITLE: THE HEADS
January 2021
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Acrylic paint on glass heads.
Head 1: Alizarin crimson, mars black and titanium white
Head 2: Vermillion, lemon yellow, marine blue, phthalocyanine blue, mars black and titanium white
Head 3: Burnt umber, Scarlet, yellow ochre, phthalocyanine blue, mars black and titanium white
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The goal of this work was to explore post human thought and challenge the anthropocentric view of only humans only being capable of performance by personifying the glass heads. The heads were made to act as strange characters from mysterious worlds, who encounter each other in a new space and cause an unforeseen encounter. This work was inspired by an etching titled Born, 2002, by the West German-born American artist, Kiki Smith. An imaginative space with a reappropriated narrative. ​​​
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Click to play video
TITLE: DESTRUCTION
December 2021
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The destruction in art performance began as a pottery character jug designed, modelled and fired by the artist. The rationale behind the destruction was bring to the fore the issue of mental health, with particular focus on dissociative identity disorder (DID). This is a mental disorder characterized by the maintenance of multiple and relatively enduring personality states. By smashing the image of a single character into dozens of fragments it allowed the metaphor between the destroyed pottery work and a single afflicted DID suffer of multiple personality states to be realised.
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TITLE: CREATION
December 2021
​Nihilism, the destruction for the sake of destruction, is not permitted in Hindu philosophy, or Nietzschean programmatic nihilism. It requires a creation, a remaking of the world. Thus, the dozens of fragments were collected up and using the principles of Kintsugi, the shattered and destroyed pottery character jug was repaired. Metaphorically, the afflicted DID sufferer’s many personas have been stitched back into the whole.
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TITLE: RABINDRANATH TAGORE CYBORG
January 2023
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Inspired by Nicholas Schöffer's CYSPP1, the work, pictured on the right, alongside the BENJAMIN ZEPHANIAH CYBORG, shows the portrait of the renowned poet Rabindranath Tagore, the Nobel laureate in Literature who throughout his life traversed two worlds (India's mystical, divine values and the spirit of the West).
The RABINDRANATH TAGORE CYBORG speaks to all British-born Asians who find themselves caught between two cultures. Tagore, was found traversing two worlds of England and India. Zephaniah also fought racism not through violence but using art as a conduit, which we should all subscribe to. And politicising art to fight injustices, such as racism, is fulfilling Art’s didactic, moral, political, and utilitarian function.
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EXHIBITED
Tate Modern Lates Workshop
March 2023,
Tate Modern, Bankside, London, England
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