Lesson 3: 2009 Whittled desk 24 x 47 in / 60 x 120 cm
“I Don’t Like Mondays”, a collection of work from artist Ben Turnbull is currently being exhibited at Eleven Fine Art in London. The work is a series of antique school desks with weapons etched into them. At first the juxtaposition seemed simple and sort of obvious, violence onto innocence, but what i like most about the collection is the sculptural quality of the carvings. It’s most effective, to me, at the points where the weapons are not fully realized, the uncarved bits on the surface provide a movement, as if they are in process of somehow being removed from the desk, put to task.
From the gallery website:
Turnbull is a passionate critic of the contemporary American political system, and explains why toys are central to his work: ‘Force fed on violence, abused by a controlling superpower and blackmailed through patriotism, the public are ultimately as disposable as the toys they once played with’.
Images to follow:
Lesson 1: 2009 Whittled desk 24 x 47 in / 60 x 120 cm
Lesson 2: 2009 Whittled desk 18 x 23 in / 46 x 58 cm
Lesson 4: 2009 Whittled desk 24 x 47 in / 60 x 120 cm
Lesson 5: 2009 Whittled desk 24 x 47 in / 60 x 120 cm
Lesson 6: 2009 Whittled desk 18 x 23 in / 46 x 58 cm
Lesson 7: 2009 Whittled Desk 24 x 48 in / 61 x 122
<From Curated>
request for rocket launcher etching. seriously, this is awesome.