BDSM Digest: Wanton Ceramic Figurines - favourite characters in s&m garb

30.1.14

Wanton Ceramic Figurines - favourite characters in s&m garb

These sculptures were exhibited at the Aqua Art Miami this year, and while we missed it on our trip to Miami, we gathered a couple of sentences from the artist’s statement on this work:

‘The contempt for effusive sentimental goods, that pander to nostalgic consumers led me to take these objects and disable them. In this process mass produced figurines become individual and surreal. These ideas are in conjunction with Duchamp’s ready-mades, Rauschenberg’s erased de Kooning, Paul McCarthy and Jeff Koons.’

Childrens’ Pop Culture icons and S&M…who wouldn’t want to see that twisted combination come to life? Playing with this juicy idea, Richard Ankrom juxtaposes the familiar and the innocent with the unlikely and devilish by creating the figurines you see here. From a masked Tinkerbell and Cinderella, to a naughty bust of Gone in the Wind’s leads, Ankrom captures conflicting, yet hysterical imagery by combining iconic visuals of our childhood idols and S&M gadgetry.

Ankrom also explains that the ‘objects are selected by their character, cleaned, masked, dipped or poured several times with synthetic rubber. Zippers are tucked in with dental tools and sealed with rubber, and some zippers are painted gold.’