David Shrigley
(1968, UK) Shrigley’s quick-witted drawings and hand-rendered texts are typically deadpan in their humour and reveal chance utterings like snippets of over-heard conversations. While drawing is at the centre of his practice, Shrigley also works across an extensive range of media including sculpture, large-scale installation, animation, painting, photography and music.
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Modeltekenen
Als bezoeker ben uitgenodigd om jouw versie van Shrigley's Life Model te komen tekenen. Je mag het resultaat ophangen en het maakt zo deel uit van het kunstwerk.
Life Model II
We are very proud to show Life Model II, 2016. Shrigley created an oversized mannequin-like sculpture of a statuesque, nude brunette, with huge wide eyes that occasionally blink, who is standing in a typical posing position. Her body parts are slightly out of proportion - very long legs and small feet - very far from the ideal male that were preferred as models in the academies just not so long ago. David Shrigley's ‘Life Model II’ is the second iteration of his ‘Life Model’, were Shrigley created a urinating male figure, with all its parts visible. The female sculpture is the opposite, not too ridiculous looking, no private parts showing and for sure no urinating. Shrigley throws in the thought of how we all see or portray a woman or a male figure.
Life Drawing invitation
All visitors are invited to sketch her, and the resulting drawings will be displayed on the surrounding walls and becoming part of the installation. Through this participatory project, Shrigley questions the cult of artistic genius, plays with power and gender dynamics, and reveals the inevitable breakdown in representation between imitation and imagination.
Shrigley is just about the last artist you’d expect to participate in a life drawing class, which makes his project all the funnier. None of his many renderings of bodies or body parts are particularly realistic, which is a large part of the charm of his work, and also what makes the life drawing exercise so curious. “I’m not trying to draw badly. I’m just trying to draw without any consideration of craft,” he told the New York Times Magazine several years ago.
With courtesy of Stephen Friedman Gallery
Special thanks: David Hubbard and Tess Charnley




