GRASS, PEONIE, BUM
GRASS, PEONIE, BUM
CREDITS
Maisie Cousins (1992, UK) creates work that is undeniably uncensored. That is, she has found an application of photography that makes her subjects overly visible. It is what could be filed under art of the ‘ridiculous sublime’: as something that is funny and uncanny at the same time.
Cousins overly addresses the sensuality of her studies of tissue – be it human flesh, the aforementioned flowers or otherwise. Not unlike Araki’s (in)famously obscene close-ups of flowers, she also manages to render a similar kind of lascivious ‘echo’ from her images. Her visual language is surely all but ‘dry’. On the contrary, it is colourful and…greasy.
Seductions are omnipresent in our consumer driven society, but what is on offer here is of another dimension. This is simply too much of it all! What Maisie Cousins shows is too open, too sensuous, too stimulating and so ‘in your face’ that if it wasn’t so incredibly aesthetic at the same time you might probably look away. But you just can’t. It is simply too attractive after all…
Grass, Peonie, Bum, Maisie Cousins’ first solo exhibition, co-curated by Mia Pfeifer and also including an installation created in collaboration with celebrity perfumer Azzi Glasser, will be on show at the TJ Boulting Gallery in London until June 24, 2017.
