Untitled (detail), Neckface via O.H.W.O.W.
Opening this Halloween at O.H.W.O.W. gallery in Miami is what some may call a 10,000 square feet haunted house, and others may refer to as a large-scale site-specific installation leading to the exhibit by Neckface. “Devil’s Disciple”, the artist’s first solo show in Miami, already has, and will undoubtedly continue to contribute to the ongoing dialectic that revolves around Neckface. As the masked idol of thousands repeatedly breaks the boundaries of acceptable, he simultaneously manages to maintain and excite the curiosity of art historians and climb the rigid hierarchy he so opposes. Perhaps, it is the innocence in the immediacy of expression that makes charming what otherwise is conceived as revolting; perhaps art world misses the documented urge of expression.
When asked about his inspiration and creative process Neckface answers: “Somtimes its just fucked up situations that i think of in my head, sometimes its what i would really like to do to someone, whether it would be an ex-girlfriend or somebody who pissed me off earlier in the day …” It is the brutal, almost primal and ironically- the unmasked, that pulls the viewer in Neckface’s world. Sartre writes “I am the one who pulls myself from the nothingness to which I aspire: the hatred, the disgust of existing, these are as many ways to make myself exist, to thrust myself into existence”. Neckface’s step into the realm coined as “aesthetic of disgust” is endearing and effective for it is uncalculated and raw. “Devil’s Disciple” will be opening at O.H.W.O.W. on October 31, 2009. “Halloween is my day. Some people like Christmas, I like Halloween” explains the artist.
Neckface creates a dummy in the window of O.H.W.O.W. via NBC Miami
More text, pictures, video and excerpts from Neckface’s answers to AO after the jump…
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