Dimensions 30X80". Acrylic and mixed media on woodpanel
Photo by Rick Mendoza
THE REASON
This painting is a subtract derived from an idea of a series of 5 empty storefront concept installations that I created as a commentary and anticommercial, based on the fact that the fashion week of Copenhagen in 1997, was located in a former slaughterhouse, where the particular location was called ’The Hall of the Axes’ in the Meatpacking District of Copenhagen. How ironic is that!
THE THEME:
One of the cultural differences between Copenhagen
and Los Angeles:
The self aggrandizement of women in LA.
It is not a new phenomenon, that women demand attention. Attention often gives an economic advantage. LA most of all, is a city controlled by the brutal force of financial gain, and a social and financial security network is virtually non existent, unless one is wealthy! Female beauty is a wealth magnet, as well as a status symbol. Women in LA ( all kinds of nationalities ) emulate media stars as the 'Figure Magnifique' of mythology.
THE FALLACY:
The fashion and film industry induces the belief, that thin girls are the real representatives of beauty. A rather narrow minded ideal. The degeneration of natural beauty is far more obvious in LA, the city of celebrities and wannabes, as girls here are typically smaller in their body measurements, than their counterparts in Europe: A new Danish trend is to expose mannequin dolls in storefronts, with sizes in European sizes, has grown from a 34 to 38 and the EU parliament is currently discussing whether to provide rules for lowest BMI numbers allowed for catwalk models. THE MANIA:
The essence of the painting ‘White Cows’, is a culmination of an observation and research into the thematic of female beauty in modern media and fashion in Los Angeles, Copenhagen and Europe in general.
The content of the painting consists of images inserted into a conceptually designed space; the painted area. In the digitally designed, and in the hand drawn images within the painting, the intention is to evoke/visualise flickering images, backgrounds and or particular locations! These flickering images or films, are of nanotech equipment for life extending and body-beautiful surgery, future dna manipulation, and even axes of a slaughterhouse. A comment on female beauty and the methods and extent used, to which people will go to in order to achieve this: Beauty conquers everything - and beauty equivocates with success.
THE THIRST:
Across the painting, there are rows of identical catwalk mannequins, posing in continuous repetitive movements, reminding of the march of a fascist parade. The mannequins stand still, a Bertolt Brechtian tableaux vivant. A black conveyor belt propels the girls, all dressed in cow skin, through the room. The floor beneath the conveyor belt is drenched in blood: The slaughterhouse!The theme of twins represents here the idea, that women also mirror themselves in each others narcississtic adoration/competition. The color scheme of the painting has conscious movement from light to dark, and from the left to the right: The concept of political progression in western society. The color palette is very feminine and deliberately misty; the location of a polluted place, where it constantly rains blood and milk...
THE RESULT:
... A parallel on the subject of being a woman in LA, and a meat market. Therefore the title, "WHITE COWS".
THE REASON:
The painting was painted as an anticommercial for a fashion week in Copenhagen, which was located in a former slaughterhouse, where the particular location was called The Hall of the Axe. How ironic is that!
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