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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