Beat My Guest
Profile
As people mature into adults, they look back on their childhood like it was one of their past lives. Back when we were a miniature cacophany of noise and demands, we would create idealistic worlds made from Lego, eat things from our backyards that weren’t meant to be consumed, and dream of living in a world of a candy utopia. As adults, we forget the simple joys in life to lethargically groom ourselves in the morning to be a working member of society.
My artwork is a homage to the imagination of childhood. It is such a brief period in life, thus I wanted to revive and relive it in my works. In some of them (most notably Bunny and Robots) there is a sense of horror and macabre. As an only child, growing up was lonely, and a means for entertaining myself was the destruction of toys and household objects. Still possessing this quality, I wanted my works to have a slight morbid touch.
Since most of the work is based on toys, I focused on Pop Surrealism because it typically incorporates them into the movement, as well as for it’s strange and fresh nature. I was also facinated by the movement because it was abolished from the highbrow art world for being too kitsch, so I wanted to continue this movement because I already felt my artwork was kitsch and unconventional. Immersed by the brilliant work of Mark Ryden, I was intrigued by the aesthetics of beauty and innocence contrasting with blood and primitivity of Blood and The Meat Show.
My photography are products with my obsession with pin-up girls and the 1950s, because of pin-up photography’s discreet sexuality and beauty, and the 1950s for its influence over Lowbrow art. The 1950s is also an influential era for me (despite not growing up in that decade, nor being born) because this was a time of American patriotism and amusing propaganda, UFO awareness, and conservatism.
Many thanks to Katrina Rogers, Rebecca Hearl, Danni Sommers, and everyone else who has participted and contributed to the photo shoots. Please feel free to add me on MySpace
Robot Ecstacy was featured in Absent Reflection, a group exhibition held at the West Gippsland Art Centre, Warragul.
Groups
Beat My Guest is a member of 1620, Acrylic Painting, All About Your Best Work, Creative Fashion Photography, Cute-n-Creepy Illustrations, HORRORAMA, Kustom Kulture, Mecha Mecca and Pinup.
