Untitled
Drawing
2004 (made)
2004 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Shaw was born in Kashmir where he was brought up in a family of carpet makers and Jamevar shawl traders but he has lived in London since the age of 16. His inspirations are diverse: they include Kashmiri shawls, Hieronymous Bosch, Japanese prints, Aubrey Beardsley, and natural history illustrations. Strands from all of these are drawn together here by a fine pencil line, embellished with car spray paint (the swirling patterns are achieved by careful application of a porcupine quill), and with glitter which he ground himself, using a domestic food-processor. His predominant subjects in recent work are metamorphosed creatures - half human, half animal - engaged in curious acts of sexual congress. His work is erotic, playful, and witty, but with an underlying seriousness - his imaginative cross-fertilisation of styles and sources references current concerns about genetic engineering, cloning, and mutations caused by environmental pollution.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | Untitled (assigned by artist) |
| Materials and techniques | Pencil, car enamel spray paint and glitter on paper |
| Brief description | 'Untitled', drawing, pencil, car enamel spray paint and glitter on paper, Raqib Shaw, United Kingdom, 2003-4 |
| Physical description | A flat paper work, mounted and framed. A fish like creature (a Ray?) lies diagonally across the picture plane. It is predominantly dark blue with turquoise glitter, and with a pink, penis-like projection from its head end, from which spurt blue and gold droplets. The fish appears to be lying over a human form, as legs and one arm are visible, and engaging in sexual congress with it. Also, from the head of the fish creature, attached to long black waving cords, are three placenta-like shapes, also in blue and gold. At the lower right two red and gold, globular shaped fish 'swim' to the right.The paper ground is white. |
| Dimensions |
|
| Marks and inscriptions | 'RaqibShaw'04' (Signed and dated in pencil bottom left.) |
| Subjects depicted | |
| Summary | Shaw was born in Kashmir where he was brought up in a family of carpet makers and Jamevar shawl traders but he has lived in London since the age of 16. His inspirations are diverse: they include Kashmiri shawls, Hieronymous Bosch, Japanese prints, Aubrey Beardsley, and natural history illustrations. Strands from all of these are drawn together here by a fine pencil line, embellished with car spray paint (the swirling patterns are achieved by careful application of a porcupine quill), and with glitter which he ground himself, using a domestic food-processor. His predominant subjects in recent work are metamorphosed creatures - half human, half animal - engaged in curious acts of sexual congress. His work is erotic, playful, and witty, but with an underlying seriousness - his imaginative cross-fertilisation of styles and sources references current concerns about genetic engineering, cloning, and mutations caused by environmental pollution. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | E.3612-2004 |
About this object record
Explore the Collections contains over a million catalogue records, and over half a million images. It is a working database that includes information compiled over the life of the museum. Some of our records may contain offensive and discriminatory language, or reflect outdated ideas, practice and analysis. We are committed to addressing these issues, and to review and update our records accordingly.
You can write to us to suggest improvements to the record.
Suggest feedback
You can write to us to suggest improvements to the record.
Suggest feedback
| Record created | December 30, 2004 |
| Record URL |
Download as: JSON
