The blog of author Dennis Cooper

Snowmen

______________
Pierre Ardouvin Bonhomme de neige (Snowman), 2007
Resin, carrot, turnip

 

______________
Tsuchiya Kaban The Snowman Carrier, 2020
‘Preserve your frigid companions while en route to your next holiday party with this elegant new bag from Tsuchiya Kaban. The Snowman Carrier is complete with a carrot pocket and a removable tray, which keeps the frozen figure secure during transport and allows for easy removal upon arrival.’

 

_______________
Bale Creek Allen Snow Cone Santa, 2019
Installation, sculpture

 

_______________
harlinwood Snowman Apocalypse, 2010
‘what do you do when you are the lone survivors of a village attack and possibly the last ones left on earth…..’

 

_______________
Peter Fischli and David Weiss Snowman, 1990
Photographs

 

_______________
Lisa Yuskavage Snowman, 2008
Rail: And the space in “Snowman,” as believable as it is, the image of the naked baby in the cold, snowy landscape is very strange one indeed. Yuskavage: That baby painted the whole show. Rail: And how you contrast the baby, which is painted in color, with the rest of the painting’s grayscale… Yuskavage: I was always looking at Giorgione, especially “The Tempest”. Not only was he able to integrate an ominous landscape with a gentle nude woman nursing her baby and the soldier standing on the left in the foreground, Giorgione essentially achieved a painting with no known iconography, which is a form known as “poesis.” None of us will ever know what the hell is going on. It’s that mystery that I love.’

 

_______________
Mungo Thomson Snowmen, 2020
Painted bronze

 

________________
Judy Linn snowman, 2003
Archival inkjet print

 

________________
Robert Therrien No title (snowman), 1989
nickel and bronze

 

________________
Paul Smith The Life of a Snowman, 2021
‘An elegant and modern take on the traditional Russian matryoshka dolls, designed by Aamu Song and Johan Olin for Com-Pa-Ny. ‘The Life of Snowman’ set features eight dolls depicting the melting process of a snowman, delicately crafted from Linden wood and finished with paint lacquer in Semenov, Russia.’

 

_______________
Low Chee Peng I Hate Mushrooms, 2012
Sculpture installation, mix medium.

 

________________
Clockwork Wolf Frosty Nights, 2017
Frosty Nights is a Five Nights at Freddy’s-style Survival Horror game by Barry McCabe (also known as Clockwork Wolf). A young child has spent a day building a snowman before being called in by their mother. That night, the mother tells them to get to bed early so they can be ready for school tomorrow, and warns them against listening to scary stories because they give them nightmares. Guess what they decide they’re gonna do next. So, yes, that night, the child finds they’re being visited, and the unexpected company isn’t friendly. Luckily, they’ve got a flashlight and a hair dryer, so as long as they keep their eyes on all the entrances to their room, they’re set.’

 

________________
Peter Regli Snow Monsters, 2015
‘In february 2007 in Vietnam, Regli introduced his Reality Hacking Project No. 240, with 180 snowmen, all from 30 to 50 centimeters of height, all sculpted in white marble. Later that year, Regli took one bigger snowman on a world tour (Reality Hacking No. 256, Snowman World Tour). It is possible that very few of the inhabitants of town Da Nang in Vietnam, where the tour begun, actually saw a snowman before Regli’s sculpture. Since, several of his Projects were about snowmen, and the current Snow Monsters is a culmination of Regli’s snowmen-making career. In that career, the artist, God-like, transforms the essence of a subject of his work into its complete opposite, while on the outside everything seems to be the same. But, instead of their inevitable doom, the artist’s snowmen are condemned to eternity, or as close as it gets, since marble is one of the most durable materials.’

 

________________
Jeff Koons Gazing Ball (Snowman), 2013
Plaster and steel

 

_______________
Tony Tasset Various Snowmen, 2006 – 2017
Polystyrene, fiberglass mesh, paper-mâché, plaster, resin, steel, brass, acrylic and oil paint

 

_________________
Moonbit Cold Call, 2020
‘On Christmas Eve, Officer Frederick Hartwell believes he’s on a routine call-out to settle a domestic dispute but gets more than he bargained for when he finds that the house is empty, it’s unnaturally cold and something seems to be lurking in the darkness. A short Horror game inspired by early-2000’s Point-and-Click games seen on Flash websites.’

 

_________________
Gary Hume Back of a Snowman (White and Black), 2002
‘The title ‘Back of a Snowman’ plays a joke on the viewer. No matter how many times you circle the sculpture, you’ll never see the snowman’s front.’

 

______________
David Shrigley Black Snowman, 1996
‘This photograph was taken in Kelvingrove Park in Glasgow. Shrigley used to live beside the park and considered it as an extension of his studio. The artist loves to make snowmen: to create this work, he made a black silhouette of a snowman which he then photographed on location in the park.’

 

________________
Sean Landers Snowman in Brueghel, 2016
Oil on linen

 

________________
Jan Kiefer Skiing Snowman, 2020
‘In the center of the gallery sits a towering, 15-foot-tall inflatable snowman perched on orange skis. Pitched forward and buckled under the gallery’s ceiling, the snowman casts a blank stare downward and bears a crooked, toothy grin.’

 

_______________
Josh Smith Snowman, 2013
‘Josh Smith has made the image of a ceramic snowman resting in a field of digitized snow. “Josh” scrawled across its dirty bottom.’

 

_______________
Isamu Noguchi Yellow Landscape (Snowman), 1943
partially reconstructed, 1995

 

_________________
Todd Hebert Snowman #4, 2006
Acrylic on canvas over panel

 

__________________
Daniel Arsham + Snarkitecture Snowman in White, 2019
Resin, edition of 4

 

________________
Otto Dix Snowman, 1948
Lithograph

 

________________
Didier Massard Le bonhomme de neige, 1993
Silver dye bleach print

 

_______________
Olaf Breuning Mr. Melting Men (Icecream, Snowman og Chocolate), 2004.
‘Created in Ghana by artisan Samuel Nash based on original drawings by Olaf Breuning, the three wooden sculptures do more than take up a national tradition of ornamenting functional coffins that started about fifty years ago; they cheerfully represent the idea of disappearance through the image of a snowman, an ice-cream cone and a chocolate bar that—as they smile and give us the thumbs-up—are waiting to melt.’

 

_________________
Annette Lemieux Potential Snowman, 2001
‘The all-white Potential Snowman (2001) consisting of three spheres, a cast carrot nose, and coal carefully arranged on a low pedestal, is a sort of cataloging of the parts of a snowman that will never melt. Considering that it is a response to the events of 9/11 allows us to access the full meaning of the work, tempering but not erasing the humor.’

 

_________________
Pope.L Oedipal Snowman Problem, 2019-20
acrylic, charcoal, copy paper, push pins, PVA, painter’s tape, wooden discs, post-it, collage, permanent marker and archival pigment prints on panel

 

_________________
Bonnie Collura Snowman, 2000
Fiberglass resin and paint

 

_________________
Mickael Cooney Jack Frost 2: Revenge of the Mutant Killer Snowman, 1997
‘On a snowy December night, a state execution transfer vehicle crosses into the quiet backwater town of Snomanton. Contained within the truck is serial killer Jack Frost (Scott MacDonald), who eluded police for five years and left a trail of thirty-eight bodies across five states before finally being arrested, ironically enough by the sheriff of the same town the truck had just entered. Frost is scheduled to be executed at midnight that night. However, due to the snowy weather, a tanker from the GCC that is driving the other direction collides with the prison truck, freeing Jack. As he tries to make his escape, the acid contained within the tanker breaks free, horribly scarring Jack. He falls to the ground, and his body begins to fuse with snow.’

 

_________________
Mark Tansey Snowman, 2004
Oil on canvas

 

_________________
MSAMAH Wooden log snowman, 2010
‘I was so happy with this snowman made from wooden logs! It was custom-made to fit my folding mattress sofa bed. I wanted to show by this picture how nice my snowman made from wooden logs looks in my living room. Awesome!’

 

__________________
Dennis Oppenheim Snowman Factory, 1996
‘”Snowman Factory”, a gigantic Rube Goldberg machine, is a working “factory” in the shape of a giant steel igloo produces fiberglass snowmen. As the show progresses, snowmen are created and scattered lethargically against the walls or on the floor, a living example of art making art and another commentary on process in general. The piece has a lava-lamp type quality that sucks the viewer in and provides a childlike fascination.’

 

__________________
Nancy Callan The Robber, 2016
Blown incalmo glass

 

___________________
Norman Rockwell Gramps and the Snowman, 1919
Grandfather and Snowman, this Norman Rockwell painting, appeared on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post published December 20, 1919. Alternate titles for this painting are Gramps Encounters Gramps, Snow Sculpture, and Gramps and the Snowman. This painting was Rockwell’s twenty-fifth overall picture featured on the cover of The Post and the eleventh Rockwell cover in 1919. The Post featured a Rockwell illustration on its cover eleven times in 1919.’

 

___________________
Marcel Dzama Melting Snowman Canisters, 2005
‘Marcel Dzama’s Melting Snowman Canisters were inspired by a series of personal autobiographical drawings and paintings allegorically documenting his move to New York from Winnipeg. Three of the 4 ceramic snowmen have an airtight lid and are designed to store spices, coffee, candy, broken dreams, etc. Dave Eggers has described them as “two percent wit, ninety-eight percent fragile, fragile beauty.”‘

 

_______________
Deborah Brown Other Misfit, 1994
Fiberglass, fake fur, feathers, paint

 

_______________
Poloron Snowman Mechanical Blowmold, 1969
‘This classic mechanical snowman blow mold makes a delightful addition to your Christmas decorations. It features a vintage design for a nostalgic look. Weather-resistant for both indoor or outdoor use, our snowman blow mold lights up for day or night visibility. Pair two to create an eye-catching entrance.’

 

_______________
David Humphrey Snowman in Love, 2006
‘Last month, the New York-based artist David Humphrey  activated the space of the non-profit Triple Candie contemporary art center in Harlem with a holiday-themed installation titled “Snowman in Love.” Seven inflatable snowmen were arranged against one wall, stacked on their sides all the way to the ceiling in a no-strings-attached love sandwich that seemed a perfect remedy for the blustery chill outside for most of the month. The translucent nylon sculptures were lit from within, giving off a yellow glow, and adorned with hand-painted cartoon eyes, splatters of paint and such haute couture as a t-shirt featuring a graphic from the classic Milton Bradley game Operation.’

 

 

*

p.s. Hey. ** David, That sounds like me. That’s a lot of dogs. I’ve been pet free since one too many of mine died tragically in my childhood/early teens. Now I like them from a safe distance. Glad you’re feeling better. Xmas is getting so close you can hit it with a ten foot pole. ** David Ehrenstein, Well, that makes sad sense. I don’t know who Michael Imperioli is, but I’ll go find out. ** Misanthrope, Hi. Poor guy, poor everyone around him. Right, gotcha, on the job thing. Well, you’re doing the Lord’s work, I guess. Where would we be without proof-readers? On the internet? Enjoy the getaway. Sounds nice, rock that joint and vice versa. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben. Well, of course, being quite the Nouveau Roman nut, I recommend the indulging. Things are crazy, especially in your country, and ‘coming soon’ as far as we go, inevitably. ** Thomas Kendall, Hi, T! Such a cogent quote, right? Nice mind/intention meld: you and her. I’m good enough, I think I can say. How about you? What’s Xmas-y and not? ** Steve Erickson, Hi. Figured you might have to cancel your trip. Sucks. It really does sound scary in NYC. I turned on the TV news last night, and it seemed like half the news was about things being cancelled there. Cancelled in the old fashioned sense. ** Brian, Hi, Brian. She’s great, I think. I like watching big blockbuster movies on planes exactly because of  the tremendous stress the little screens and mediocre sound put on them. I like watching them while being forced to use my imagination not only in the temporary ‘that’s real, I care’ sense, but also in the ‘what would this be like at full force’ way. They’re like those little dry, scrunched sponges that you have to put water on to restore. Or something. Yeah, on planes I just line up all the blockbusters I haven’t seen and switch from one to the next until the jet’s wheels are screeching on the runway. Plus, they’re usually 2 1/2+ hours long, so they’re cheap, acceptable boredom killers. Or that’s my excuse anyway. I fully accept that my not liking ‘Querelle’ so much is my problem entirely. Same with, say, Pasolini and Tarkovsky, neither of whose films interest me much for no justifiable reason. Obviously I think you should absolutely shoot that musical remake. There’s gold in them thar hills surely. Well, make your weekend squeal like a tickled child, man, and I’ll … give mine a back rub or something. ** Okay. I thought I would turn the blog into a Xmas Wonderland this weekend. It seems like the least I can try to do, you know? What with nowadays being nowadays and everything. Anyway, that’s your local to-do, and I’ll see you on Monday.

9 Comments

  1. Jim Pedersen

    Love Tony Tasset’s snowmen. Didn’t know the series. And it’s always great to see Judy Linn’s work. Thanks.

  2. David

    Jeez… at least you could get a little hamster Den…. or a hen…

    ‘ON THE SAD SIDE’ when I was a boy we had a blind puppy called Sam… one day we couldn’t find him…. I was 9 my sister was 8…. after making a long search… we spotted him caught up in the net over the fish pond he had drowned…. I remember crying all the way to school… we buried him in the garden… it took years for my sister to get over…

    ‘ON THE INSIDE’ there was once this bitch who was so up herself she had to miscarry every morning just to get about…. self birth whatever…. to look at she was actually easy on the eye… almost regal…. in contrast she sounded common as shit… you could imagine her selling tickets to take a peek at the elephant man on the White Chapel road….. “Roll up roll up!!… ‘er e is”….. She used to stop and speak to me everday whilst walking her dog…. then one day she went real real cold…. I didn’t know why Den….. The dog was always unruly and barked at folks…. she had it trained by an ex military guy…. one day on passing me… I had a left over ‘mini banger’ you know those things that you throw on the floor and they make a loud bang…. crackers whatever…. I deliberately threw it on the floor as she passed… and the dog started barking like crazy…. “ah not so well trained is he!!?” I said under my breath…. being close to Christmas one day I found her in a panic crying…. turns out the dog had gone missing…. as the London snows came there was little or no chance of her finding it…. so to cheer her up I made a snowman for her a real good one!!… right out side her door…. she loved it!!! And even posed for a photo with it… It stayed there for a whole week…. until it started melting…. one morning around 9am a scream could be heard for miles and miles…. on coming out to see…. to everyone’s horror!!!!! She stood their pointing at her dog…. inside the snowman.. it had been there the whole time!!! The snow had melted just enough to show part of its sorry face and one of its legs standing upright……….. (at least part of that story happened in my imagination…..variations included such things as it being nailed to a tree) ‘ho ho ho!!’

    Loving this post…. snow men apocalypse!!!

    Have a brilliant weekend Dennis xx

  3. Dominik

    Hi!!

    Oh, shit, producer problems again… Sorry for the ignorance, but I have no idea how this works: do you choose your own producer? Or once you have a contract with a channel, etc. (like ARTE), they assign you a producer, and that’s that?

    Did you manage to catch “Crowd”?

    Oh, you also read “Detransition, Baby”! I ran into it so many times, and everyone was praising it so much that I was a little wary but curious to start it. But, yeah, it really is good. I’m planning to devote most of today to it.

    Hmmmm. I’d say Fat Joe would probably try to remain skinny just to fuck with whoever named him Fat Joe? What do you think, haha?

    Ah, it was so, so lovely to see Anita! She’s home for a little while now, so we’ll meet again soon – it’s just so much better to talk in person than via Zoom, etc.

    Thank you for your high-tech love! I’m glad to have it in my apartment – both as a functional thing and as decoration. Love giving you an indispensable snowman carrier for Christmas, Od.

  4. David Ehrenstein

    A Song About Snow by Harold Arlen and Truman Capote

    MichaelImperioli played “Spider” in “Goodfellas” appeared as a mobster to great effect in “The Sopranos”and was spot-on as Ondine in “I Shot Andy Warhol”

    • David

      Nice song cheers

  5. Misanthrope

    Dennis, Snowmen are kinda hideous creatures, imo. But you know I’m loving that igloo thing there. 😀

    We had a good time in Annapolis. Good food and all that.

    We got back here around 1:30 a.m. And then David and Kayla got into it really bad. Basically, he started it with talking about his drug problem and how we’re not nice enough to him or positive enough and she had some things he didn’t want to hear. Anyway, as I went to bed, my mom was picking up a bunch of broken glass and surveying the new holes in the walls. Just a typical Wines weekend night. Ugh.

    Yeah, you know, I like to be all humble and shit about what I do for a living, but man, there are times I’m finished with a proofread and am like, “Thank God that didn’t make it out to the public like that!” I’ll never forget an error I caught years ago…number was supposed to be 600,000 and not the 60,000 that was in there. Would’ve cost the guv’ment millions of dollars. So yeah, we have a purpose. 😀

  6. _Black_Acrylic

    The Snowman is a UK Christmastime institution, a much-loved 25-minute cartoon from 1982 based on the Raymond Briggs children’s book. It provides the moving story of a young boy who flies away through the sky with his snowman friend. Everything ends the morning after with the snowman melted away, thus providing its audience with a lesson in loss that carries on for a lifetime’s learning.

  7. Steve Erickson

    This is old news, but I remember teenagers in the mid 2000s getting sent home from school for wearing Young Jeezy’s cartoon snowman T-shirt when teachers figured out what it was alluding to.

    Anthology and Spectacle have both shut down for the moment, with an opening in early January planned but not certain. I ate indoors at a restaurant for lunch yesterday, and I was the only person there who wasn’t a waiter. They told me that business has taken a tumble in the last few days. I’m dreading the near future.

  8. Brian

    Hey, Dennis,

    The snowman is such a beautifully and elegantly simple template; kind of perfect for art, as these wonderful works attest. Your words re: blockbusters on planes are the soundest and most interesting on the subject I’ve ever heard. That disempowerment or despectacularization of them provides both more fun for the imagination and more room to evaluate their strengths and weaknesses or whatever at a distance. Strips them down, so to speak. That makes a ton of sense to me. I too tend to queue the blockbusters up when I happen to be on a plane, although I’ve not produced as intelligent a rationale for it as you have. Fully understood about “Querelle”. I’m split on Tarkovsky too. I’ve only seen “Solaris”, which I liked…well, I liked it decently well, but I found myself kind of bored/detached from a lot of the scenes and moments that are apparently its most “Tarkovskian”, so as of right now I remain sort of cold on him. Like I don’t find myself strongly interested in or excited to see any of his other films, is all. We’re going to see if we can make that musical remake happen. Probably not, but maybe. Everybody wants to, so…my weekend hardly squealed, but I did get to watch “Ludwig” tonight. Wow. What a monster of a movie. (In a good way.) Very hard to find the words to start unpacking all of that. But I think it’s Visconti’s saddest film, and probably (to evoke a cliché) his most personal, no? Interesting to see how it anticipates aspects of “The Damned” and “Death in Venice” but in reverse. Anyway, it might be my favorite Visconti now? I’m not sure yet. Incredible experience either way. Highlight of my weekend. That and seeing my grandparents and finishing my Christmas shopping for my brother (who, by the by, is reading and quite enjoying “Frisk”, and, after finishing the “Numb” chapter tonight, came downstairs with a discernibly and wonderfully spooked look on his face, to my delight). Did your back rub plans regarding your weekend pan out? Hope so. Or even better!

Leave a Reply

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

© 2024 DC's

Theme by Anders NorénUp ↑