| Beasts, Saints, robotic hybrids, and Greek Gods are assembled together to form decadent hive-like dystopias bent on destruction and fevered with lust.
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Beast Anthology
November 21, 2009 - December 19, 2009
Joshua Liner Gallery
548 W. 28th Street New York, N.Y
joshualinergallery.com
Being of the literary minded, I immediately thought of Dante's intense and weird poetic masterpiece Inferno when encountering Kansas born Kris Kuskis's sold out sculptural cosmos, Beast Anthology, at Joshua Liner Gallery. Beasts, Saints, robotic hybrids, and Greek Gods are assembled together to form decadent hive-like dystopias bent on destruction and fevered with lust. Washed with a bleak apocalyptic color palate, the work shows no redemption, no saving grace among its industrial and architectural landscapes, freckled with the soft flesh of uncaring Gods and lost Saints.
Although the floors were taped off with invisible boundary lines, it's impossible not to be drawn in, impossible not to have to lean in closer for a better look at all the tiny yet epic scenes and figures that unfold in each contained vortex. As relatively small magnetic forces, the work carries quite a massive and alluring presence in the gallery. The track lighting was dimmed a bit lower than normal, casting eerie and intricate shadows in graduated gray tones against the walls, adding to the overall presence of the work .Created from a complex mix of found objects such as toys, religious statues, and hand-sculpted parts, the work is just as wondrous in its construction as it is in its final form. The seamless surgeries of the mixed anatomies further highlight Kuski's precise hand and vision. All the figures in the work are in a state of action, whether it is readying themselves for battle or sex, which adds an animate effect, as if each floating universe is truly alive. The contradiction of anthropomorphism and robotic hybrids with the bodies of armed men suggest prophecy, as each piece could serve as an omen to our current times, while still retaining the resonance and distance of science fiction.
The familiar characters from our youth are reassigned new identities, such as St. Anthony, the Patron saint of Lost things, is depicted as a cannibalistic, sleepy eyed giant, unaware or uncaring of the chaos at his feet. The beautiful three Graces from Greek Mythology are disgraced and tower above a nude entourage. Napoleon has become the monstrous one- eyed Cyclops and Fiver, the rabbit seer from Watership Down exists to see his doom prophecies realized. These choices further the unsettling feeling the work gives and affirms that there is indeed, no hope to those that enter here.
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