The blog of author Dennis Cooper

Children

______________
Katharina Fritsch Child with Poodles (1995 – 1996)

 

_____________
Andrea della Robbia Swaddled Baby (1466)

 

_______________
Bruce Conner CHILD (1960)

 

_______________
Michael Zajkov Boy (2015)

 

_______________
Li Wei Secure for Now (2016)

 

_______________
Johnson Tsang Shaping Love (2015)

 

_______________
Bruno Walpoth Various (2008 – 2014)
Having grown up with a lineage of grandfathers and an uncle who were distinguished woodcarvers, Walpoth has eagerly chosen to follow their practice, incorporating his own contemporary ideas to the craft. Inspired by all forms of art that lie beyond wood carving and sculptures, Walpoth approaches solid slabs of wood with a creative outlook, transforming them into intricately detailed figures in the likeness of boys and men.

 

_______________
Stuart Candy NurturePod (2012)
An infant sits strapped into an egg-like booster seat, a virtual reality visor over its eyes, and earbuds plugged into its ears. It’s calm and quiet. The NurturePod helps manage circadian rhythm, keeps the baby entertained with age-appropriate puzzles and music from Bach to Beyoncé. It’s motionless and seems pacified. The sole sign of life is in the infant’s flushed cheeks. NuturePod is presented as a product for parents to buy. For a seemingly reasonable €789 (about $920), the device purportedly helps manage a child’s sleep cycles, while engaging its creativity, body awareness, cultural orientation, emotional regulation, and social skills. It’s not clear if these claims have been independently verified.

 

_______________
Eva Blonde (2010)

 

_______________
Martin Hudáček Memorial for Unborn Children (2017)

 

_______________
Morton Bartlett Painted Plaster Figure of Seated Boy (1950)

 

_______________
Gregor Gaida Attaboys (2012)

 

_______________
Tian He 青铜、丙烯、吹制玻璃,(2011)

 

_______________
Yan Shilin What’s up? Empty Sofa (2010)

 

______________
Anders Krisar The Birth of Us (boy) (2007)

 

______________
Kader Attia Flying Rats (2008)
In Flying Rats, children sculpted out of birdseed disappear over time, [pecked into oblivion by live pigeons].

 

______________
Gustav Vigeland Untitled (1921)

 

______________
Unknown EC (1993)
Lift Off was an early ’90s Australian TV show about a group of little kids and their faceless friend, EC.

 

______________
Jane Alexander Bom Boy (1998)

 

______________
Gehard Demetz Boy (2013)

 

_______________
Duane Hanson Baby in Carriage (1983)
His shirt reads “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast the first stone,” from the Gospel of John 8:7.

 

_______________
Rozdroza Wolnosci Untitled (2009)

 

_______________
Alexander Milov Love (2015)

 

________________
Charles Ray Boy With Frog (2008)

 

________________
Tari Nakagawa Abandoned Children (2008 – 2015)

 

_________________
Rachel Harrison Alexander the Great (2007)

 

__________________
Nina Levy Drop (2006)

 

__________________
Keith Edmier Beverly Edmier 1967 (1998)

 

_________________
Jorge Pineda Little Red Riding Hood (2012)

 

__________________
Martin Selman Bundle 1 (Dead Baby) (2014)

 

__________________
The Kid Too Young to Die (2013)

 

__________________
Adel Abdessemed Chicos (2015)

 

__________________
Erwin Wurm he-pop (2012)

 

_________________
Brandon Boor “simplified mechanical crawling infant” (2018)

 

_________________
Alan Wilson Grandmother and Child (1998)

 

_________________
Loretta Lux The Boy (2001)

 

_________________
David Mesguich Lucie (2017)

 

_________________
Ron Mueck Boy (1999)

 

_________________
Unknown Inez Clarke (1880)
Inez Clarke was just 6 when she died in 1880. The girl was killed during a storm while on a family picnic and was buried in Graceland Cemetery in Chicago, Illinois. After her death, her parents had a life size sculpture made in the likeness of their dearly departed daughter. It was put in a glass case to protect it from the elements. It may not even be Inez Clarke buried there, as there are no records of a girl dying and being buried in that area. It is believed an 8-year-old boy named Amos Briggs is actually interred at the foot of the statue.

 

_________________
Janine Antoni Lick and Lather (1993)
Chocolate and soap.

 

_________________
Olaf Breuning Home (2006)

 

_________________
Maria Rubinke Untitled (2011)

 

_________________
Paul Trey Little Boy Lost (2009)
‘Little Boy Lost’ by Paul Trefry is a life-like but oversized fibreglass rendition of a naked small boy with a spaced look. After initial exposure, it was decided that the figure could shock families, encourage pedophiles. Event organisers covered him with grungy speedos. After a few days the artist finally revolted over and removed the speedos, hopefully restoring lost boy’s innocence, and threatening to withdraw the sculpture if he was contradicted.

 

_________________
Lene Kilde Incomplete Child #s 7, 13 (2017)

 

_________________
Stefan Zola Untitled (2008)

 

_________________
ByungHo Lee Vacuum Packed Boy (2003)

 

_________________
Patricia Piccinini Game Boys Advanced (2002)

 

 

*

p.s. Hey. ** David Ehrenstein, I agree, natch. I’ve never seen ‘Un Chambre en Ville’ and need to. I’ve only seen posters for ‘Chez Nous’ in the metro, but I know nothing about it. I will endeavour to find out how it’s going down. ** Steve Erickson, Hi. Obviously I don’t think there’s any problem with your non-gay actor playing a gay. Acting involves playing what you aren’t. There will likely be some shrieking outliers who take offence, I guess. But so what. My allergies kindly disappeared overnight. I don’t know if they have Flonase here. My go-to back home was always Afrin Nasal Decongestant, which I wound up getting a bit addicted to briefly due to its charming high, and I know they don’t sell that here because it’s considered too drug-like. Everyone, Steve has briefly reviewed Andrew Haigh’s film LEAN ON PETE right here. ** Jamie, Jamaestro! Okay, may that MRI be the Mr. Rogers of MRIs. Thing is to get that shit figured out once and for all so you aren’t just slammed out of nowhere by your body too much of the time. My allergies went away. Either the pollen ceased whirling about and finally hit the ground or I ran out of liquid or something, I don’t know how that works. Re: the TV script, right now we’re waiting for Gisele to finish writing her intention text. Apparently if we’re going to have a hope of making the series how we want — given our producer’s prediction that it’s too unconventional — Gisele will have to explain how she intends to shoot/present it and basically sell the series. I think we’re supposed to get that from her today. And since Gisele writes intention texts like she thinks Derrida is her audience, I suspect there will be a bunch of work to get it sufficiently user-friendly. The 55 scenes thing was for each +/- 59 minute episode. We’re not going to get even close. But there’s a bigger problem in that our producer has not yet paid Zac or Gisele what they’ve been owed for going on a month, and I’ve only received partial payment after harassing her. Zac gets back to Paris from his travels this afternoon. If he hasn’t received the money by today, he and I are going on strike and will not do another inch of work on the script until he’s paid. It’s a big, disgusting mess. You should see ‘Un Femme Douce’, of course! Well, not ‘should’. I hate that word, but you know what I mean. ‘A Voice Through A Cloud’ is a weirdly on-the-money read for you du jour albeit with a billion-times happier conclusion. Did you get some added pep today? Love inside erased brackets, Dennis. ** Dóra Grőber, Hi! Exactly, yeah, about book festivals. I try not to look at the titles/covers of the books people actually buy at them. Our producer is a gigantic pain. We’re not going to flesh out the script, or at least not until ARTE itself asks us to, if they do, which they hopefully won’t. As I just told Jamie, there’s every chance that Zac and I will go on strike today since he hasn’t been paid what he was contractually due for almost a month. It just incredibly sucks that we have to go through this shit with our own producer who is supposed to be helping us. I’d never heard of Aquaria before. I just took an initial quick peek at one of the videos, and I get your fascination. I’ll make a thorough video meet-and-greet this afternoon. Thanks for sharing that! My day was … okay. My allergies died out, so that was good. I went to this new patisserie that’s kind of the buzz of Paris right now. They only sell 5 pastries at a time, and they’re pretty amazing looking and very expensive. There was a doorman and a long line to get inside. Here’s the shop’s instagram. I bought singles of the ones that look like extremely realistic limes and apples. They were amazing, and, wow, expensive: 17 euros each! Otherwise I worked a little, took a walk, bought food, not too exciting. I hope the festival’s first day doesn’t totally burn you out and that you have all the fun humanly possible. I look forward to hearing how that went. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hey. For a long, long time ‘Un Femme Douce’ was impossible to see/find due to complicated rights issues, but I think it has been at least somewhat cleared now. I know it’s on DVD here. Unlike the great ‘Four Nights of a Dreamer’ which remains completely inaccessible except in terrible bootleg versions. ** Misanthrope, Hi. Well, an imaginary beheading that’s only signalled by a sudden icing over of my eyes. I’m waiting for the NYC powers that be to figure out when I’ll be there. They don’t have a ton of dough, so they’ll probably just bring me over for the last rehearsals and the shows. I know I’ll fly back to Paris on the 29th, but my arrival in NYC date is in process. The blog looks fine on my end. I did check, and you’re right about the ‘may have been hacked’ designation. That’s weird and obnoxious. The blog is very unhacked. Do you, or does anyone, know how I can get that ‘maybe hacked’ notice out of the search results? ** Liquoredgoat, Hi, D., good to see ya! I’m glad you’re writing, duh. I trust that there are those in your immediate vicinity who’ll do what’s necessary to prevent you from starving. ** Right. Today I made one of those thematic posts that I seem to like to make, this time about kids. See you tomorrow.

9 Comments

  1. David Ehrenstein

    Kindeetotenleider

  2. David Ehrenstein

    Here’s Jacques!

  3. Steve Erickson

    Here’s a link to the Spotify playlist I made of my favorite psychedelic music, in honor of 4/20: https://open.spotify.com/user/21u57q33ihyk63ypgu4mswzgy/playlist/4fbqaw2o2DsviGkt9W6Rkm?si=NlJxOPbqSPyDVARyOxSZLg. I left out so much music I love that I could have made a second playlist, especially since I restricted myself to 1966-1974. I tried to go with deep cuts by well-known artists like Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane, the Byrds and Beatles for fear of sounding like the Forrest Gump soundtrack.

    I’ve used this analogy with several people, but I think it might be a bigger stretch for an actor to play a character from a different nationality than a different sexual orientation. Australian director John Curran’s film about Chappaudick, starring Australian actor Jason Clarke as Ted Kennedy, was recently released in the U.S. I certainly wouldn’t feel comfortable writing and directing a Stephen Harper biopic starring, say, Joaquin Phoenix or Ben Affleck unless I did tons and tons of research and lived in Canada for at least a year. But this issue hasn’t been politicized the way the demand that gay actors should play gay characters has been.

    The entire series of web episodes inspired by Buy Muy Drugs’ album will be premiering at the Film Society of Lincoln Center May 11th. Only two of the four have been released on YouTube and the group’s website so far. They managed to piss me off by offering a limited-edition cassette/download with 7 new songs and remixes that costs $30. But their rapper Denmark Vessey released a solo album today, whose first half is produced by Earl Sweatshirt.

  4. Jamie

    Excellent post, Dennis! I tried to list everything I really loved in it and that was everything, so I stopped. Suffice to say it’s all amazing, for many different reasons, and has given me lots of joy and inspiration today. Thank you! So many pieces seem to reflect the complicated feelings I have about having kids too.
    Ah, I’m so sorry to hear about your possible strike. What a massive pain for you all. I hope it doesn’t come to that, but totally good on you for doing so if you have to. Some people! Has there been any movement today?
    Interesting about the 55+ scenes per hour. I counted and timed the scenes in some mainstream tv dramas a while ago and was shocked by quite how many short scenes there were. It seems completely daft to make a rule of it, eh, but it seems tv folk are especially petrified of bucking a trend.
    What weekend plans have you got? The Glasgow International art festival is on, meaning there’s lots and lots to see and do, so I’m going to try and see as much as I’ve got the energy for. And yes, the pep is gradually returning, thanks for asking!
    Hope you have the dandiest weekend!
    Looks like a pizza, smells like a pizza, tastes like a pizza love,
    Jamie

  5. _Black_Acrylic

    I went to New York on my own in the late 90s and went round a bunch of art spaces. They included one showing that Keith Edmier sculpture, in what must have been its gallery debut. IIRC his pregnant mother is portrayed wearing an identical suit to one that Jackie Kennedy had on in the year he was conceived.

    The big news is that the Yuck ‘n Yum Compendium is finally finished! It gets sent away to the printers tomorrow morning and I’m feeling pleased with it right now.

  6. David Ehrenstein

    Just got through watching “Filmworker” a new documentary about Leon Vitali — who played Lord Bullington in “Barry Lyndon” and went on to be Kubrick’s right-hand, foot and everything else. It you love Kubrick you MUST see this as it’s loaded with fascinating information. Vitali interviewed all the kids who wanted to audition for “The Shining” and chose Danny Lloyd. He and Lloyd bonded, which helped Kubrick enormously. Vitali also discovered the Twin girls. Originally it was just one girl but everyone he auditioned for the art was unsatisfactory until these two showed up. One look at them and he thought of the famous Diane Arbus twins and told Kubrick — who was over the moon about them. Most interesting of all is the fact that Kubrick died just as the finishing touches were being put on “Eyes Wide Shut” so Vitali was in point of fact the person who actually completed the film.

  7. Misanthrope

    Dennis, This is one of the best days ever. So exciting. So interesting how we all view children/can view children in different ways and what that says about them and us and society and how we interact as a society. Wow.

    Oh, okay re: NYC. If you’d be so kind, once you get something firm, please let me know. I’m still sure the kids will be with me. Maybe we can arrange a quick meet, even if it’s before a show or something. I definitely want them to see it.

    Yeah, it was really weird. I don’t know if you’ve ever looked at something like 4chan, but there were all these little links like that at the top of the page, the very top, with little up-rules between them. I just assumed they were links to the pics in the post, so I clicked one and got one of those “DON’T FUCKING GO TO THIS SITE OR YOUR WHOLE FAMILY WILL DIE” type messages. Okay, not that extreme, but one of those ones that warns about a potential virus.

    I have no idea how to get rid of that notice on the Google search. I only noticed it when I searched the blog on my phone the other day. Came home and checked to see if it’d show up on my PC. It did. I’m wondering if that was there before all the Blogger bullshit that made you have to move your blog here. Google’s evil, you know.

    I’m reading BEE’s Less than Zero right now. I’ve never read it before, believe it or not. I can see the comparisons between this and your earlier stuff. The more I’m thinking about it, though, there are stark differences and it’s definitely not the same stuff…or your early stuff is much more different from his than it is similar. Still haven’t seen the movie version of this book either. Hmm.

  8. Steve Erickson

    Most of these are creepy, but TOO YOUNG TO DIE takes the cake. There is something so horrible about the image of babies with facial tattoos.

    I might’ve asked this already, but is Record Store Day a big deal in Paris? I had to do an errand in Williamsburg today and wound up at Rough Trade, where I asked about their plans. The store usually opens at 11 AM, but tomorrow they open at 9 AM, and the clerk advised me to get there at 7 AM if I want to actually be able to get the limited-edition records I want! I wound up buying Eric B. & Rakim’s PAID IN FULL, Albert Ayler’s THE HILVERSUM SESSION, the Deftones’ AROUND THE FUR, Hailu Merga’s LALA BELU, Drinks’ HIPPO LITE, Daniel Avery’s SOME FOR ALPHA & Courtney Marie Andrews’ MAY YOUR KINDNESS REMAIN. I’m glad there is no longer a good record store within walking distance of my apartment, as is my credit card bill.

    At the risk of sounding totally pissy and petty, I just love receiving press releases that begin with quotes from film critics like “A visual delight! Must be seen on the big screen!” and then being told by the film’s publicist that there are no press screenings for that film and watching it on Vimeo is the only way to see it for review.

  9. Nik

    Hey Dennis!

    I started rereading the Marbled Swarm today, and this post is super interesting to scroll through right after reading the Serge section. Obviously ‘interesting’ is a pretty one note, removed way of putting it, but you know what I mean, I think. I especially dig Game Boys Advanced and Little Lost Boy.
    Thanks about the acceptance! It’s been pretty weird around school honestly, since I have a major “fear of making people feel abandoned” thing going on now because of it. Not a big deal, but definitely putting a damper on the end of semester.
    Have you figured out your producer trouble? Also, how’s compiling the new gif book going?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

© 2024 DC's

Theme by Anders NorénUp ↑