“Joseph Merrick died in 1890, but he was better known as The Elephant Man because he had a rare condition that gradually disfigured his bones and skin. His head eventually became so heavy that he had to sleep sitting up, but when his body was found he was lying on a bed and the official cause of death was asphyxia from the weight of his head. Joseph Merrick never got to sleep in a bed with another person his entire adult life, so I made this body pillow to mimic the experience of cuddling him since that’s something he never got to do.”

Thanks to Matt Corey, Loren Edrich, and Jess Marvin for helping me out with this project.

The background music is “Cryin’” by The Les Paul Trio, free download here.

I’ll be giving a little presentation and chatting with some other artists at an event organized by artist Alyson Pou called Concept and Craft – Hand Made in the 21st Century this Saturday from 2-4 @ Aljira, a Center for Contemporary Art

Fountain Jumper, Knitted text on found sweater, 2013

I couldn’t make it to the opening in Ireland last week, so I sent this sweater for Jim Ricks to wear in my absence (the text is partially a reference to an exhibition Jim had a few years ago called “Jim Ricks Woz ‘Ere”)

My exhibition in Ireland opened last weekend and I tweeted a picture of my knitted tapestry of The Rubberbandits’ tweet (wearing the balaclavas that I knitted for them) to them, which they graciously retweeted.

I’m super pleased to be exhibiting in Ireland with my friend Jim Ricks in an exhibition featuring The Simpsons, The Rubberbandits, various bootlegs of our own works, and pizza at The Courthouse Gallery in charming, windswept Co. Clare (more soon!).

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/431323820294338/

Press Release:

“The Son of the Man who Saves the World” is a two-person exhibition featuring works that playfully ingage with notions of authorship, collaboration, derivative work, and pizza by Jim Ricks and Andrew Salomone.

Despite having not worked directly together since 2006, both Jim Ricks and Andrew Salomone have pursued similar art practices after attending the Burren College of Art Masters programme. That is, they both use equal parts humour, approximation, and appropriation to create work and have much in common as artists making their own highly fallible versions of things.

By coincidence, they both applied, separately, to work with the Courthouse Gallery many years ago. About 3 years ago they were both contacted to have a two person show. It was unbeknownst to the Gallery they knew each other, so they were both delighted to accept.

They decided to work in tandem to create the exhibition, each expressing his own practice, yet responding to one another. The title is a translation of the sequel to a Turkish film more commonly know as Turkish Star Wars. The film used, without permission, the battle scenes from Star Wars in a completely unrelated way to fit their own narrative, which is not unlike the way that Jim Ricks and Andrew Salomone each make their own work.

Ricks will be producing an idea Salomone came up with in 2006. Andrew has no recollection of this idea. It will be a series of paintings that are reproductions of artwork found in the Simpson’s TV series. This builds off Ricks’ own interest in institutional critique and epistemology. Salomone will be creating works from his studio in Brooklyn, NY and taking into consideration the distance both between himself and the show. Works in development are the latest in a series of conceptualist pizza deliveries, and significantly utilising a hacked knitting machine to create Rubber Bandits wool balaclavas, a custom made jumper to be worn the opening night, and a range of other knitted wears. He will also include video and photo documentation of previous works.

Jim Ricks earned his MFA from the National University of Ireland, Galway/Burren College of Art programme and received his BFA from the CaliforniaCollege of the Arts. He has exhibited numerous solo and group shows throughout Ireland and internationally. Originally from California, he has lived in Ireland for nearly 8 years and currently has a studio in Temple Bar Gallery & Studios. He has an upcoming solo show at The Hugh Lane Dublin City Gallery.

Originally from Southern California, Andrew Salomone received an MFA from the National University of Ireland and has exhibited throughout the Republic of Ireland. He’s lectured on internet art practice at Parsons the NewSchool for Design and his work has been featured on ABC’s ‘Good Morning America’ as well as several art and technology websites, including: boing boing, Gizmodo, The Guardian, and Makezine. Andrew currently lives and works in Brooklyn.

My winter boots were giving me blisters, so I made these DIY PBR Insoles from the left over PBR box from my open studio weekend, and then I submitted it to The Jogging. My feet feel way better now.

Sometimes people ask me if I’d be willing to sell things, which is nice because sometimes I make things that I am happy to sell, but now we can skip all the pleasantries because I’ll be posting things for sale right here from now on.

Here’s a classic moment from Total Recall, which Arnold describes as “a wonderful scene” in his magnificent DVD commentary, applied to an L.L. Bean sweater.

FINALLY DID THIS!

based on this Iron Maiden T-shirt design:

after Luis Camnitzer

Here’s a classic moment from Total Recall, which Arnold describes as “a wonderful scene” in his magnificent DVD commentary, applied to an L.L. Bean sweater.

I woke up this morning to a flurry of tweets and facebook tags from Ireland where The Rubberbandits posted this image of themselves wearing the balaclavas that I made for them. I shipped the balaclavas well over 2 months ago, but they were presumed to be lost in the post, so I’m delighted that these finally made it to the boys.

Basically, The Rubberbandits are an Irish duo who perform satirical music whilst concealing their identities with balaclavas made from plastic shopping bags.

I thought they might appreciate some properly knit balcalavas with the shopping bag logos knitted onto them and managed to get in contact with them, at which point they enthusiastically accepted them. Job done.