Photos courtesy of the artist and Downs & Ross, New York
Alan Belcher’s Friends, which recently closed at Downs & Ross, feels like a nursery for unreleased Pokemon mishaps, eulogized as misunderstood stuffies. Wishing to create a “very friendly object,” Belcher hand-stitched each sculpture from acrylic plush. Disparate features, colours, and forms—visual cues—are pastiched together to create an homage to specific friends of the artist’s, (“Sabine,” “Fred,” “Alessandra,” etc.) Ginger root, tiger penis, four-leaf clover, papaya, geo-rhomboid; displayed on a mattress or tacked to the wall, the sculptures are at once huggable and ominous, forcing us to reconcile where our tactility ends and our consciousness begins. – Rebecca Storm
Jenny, 1996, Acrylic plush stuffed with polyester fiberfill 19 × 18 × 17 inches, elements: Aspirin, turtle shell, ham bone, gourds, citrus half, nose of a hound, Bic pen cap
Alice, 1996 Acrylic plush stuffed with polyester fiberfill 19 × 18 × 12 inches ,elements: soccer ball, papaya, tongue, gall bladder, brain, Panama banana bunch, earthworm (based on Earthworm Jim), pine cone
Fred, 1997, Acrylic plush stuffed with polyester fiberfill 17 × 16 × 19 inches, elements: toilet paper, stomach, heart, depth-charge bomb, cow’s udder full of milk, hot dog links, tongue
Alan Belcher’s Friends
Photos courtesy of the artist and Downs & Ross, New York
Alan Belcher’s Friends, which recently closed at Downs & Ross, feels like a nursery for unreleased Pokemon mishaps, eulogized as misunderstood stuffies. Wishing to create a “very friendly object,” Belcher hand-stitched each sculpture from acrylic plush. Disparate features, colours, and forms—visual cues—are pastiched together to create an homage to specific friends of the artist’s, (“Sabine,” “Fred,” “Alessandra,” etc.) Ginger root, tiger penis, four-leaf clover, papaya, geo-rhomboid; displayed on a mattress or tacked to the wall, the sculptures are at once huggable and ominous, forcing us to reconcile where our tactility ends and our consciousness begins. – Rebecca Storm
Jenny, 1996, Acrylic plush stuffed with polyester fiberfill 19 × 18 × 17 inches, elements: Aspirin, turtle shell, ham bone, gourds, citrus half, nose of a hound, Bic pen cap
Alice, 1996 Acrylic plush stuffed with polyester fiberfill 19 × 18 × 12 inches ,elements: soccer ball, papaya, tongue, gall bladder, brain, Panama banana bunch, earthworm (based on Earthworm Jim), pine cone
Fred, 1997, Acrylic plush stuffed with polyester fiberfill 17 × 16 × 19 inches, elements: toilet paper, stomach, heart, depth-charge bomb, cow’s udder full of milk, hot dog links, tongue
exhibition view
exhibition view
Alessandra, 1996, Acrylic plush stuffed with polyester fiberfill 15 × 21 × 17 inches, elements: soccer ball, four-leaf clover, tongue, Chiquita banana bunch
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