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Edward Kienholz ROXYS (1960-1961) |
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From November 9th until December 30th, EL SOURDOG HEX e.V. will be showing ROXYS by Edward Kienholz (an environmental tableau created in 1960-61). Edward Kienholz's first art works consisted of wooden reliefs. Although he studied for one year, he never received formal art training. He earned his living with a series of odd jobs such as a bar owner, manager of a dance band and worked in a mental hospital. In Los Angeles Kienholz began to work as a conceptual and object artist. He made his art out of cast plaster figures, everyday objects and found objects he hunted down at rummage sales and flea markets. In 1961, Kienholz created his first walk-in environment, which was a painstaking replica of a 1940s Las Vegas whorehouse entitled ROXYS. Kienholz filled his surreal whorehouse with grotesque visions of prostitutes, all of which had been reduced to fragmented representations of femininity. The environment was first shown in Europe at the documenta 4 exhibition in 1968.
"Roxy's madam is made up of the lower part of a mannequin, who's been dolled up all the way to her teeth. And the teeth themselves are encased
in a lewd and lascivious looking boar's skull. [...] The very thought of Ed Kienholz's replica of Roxy's whorehouse in Las Vegas sends a chill down my spine. [...] The room you walk through is the epitome of squalor. [...] The furnishings of the era, the bric-a-brac and the little details make it read like an image of home sweet home, [...] and all of that makes it so gruesomely real."
"The artist meticulously places monikers of the time within his work, but they are by no means window dressing in some mere historical
reenactment of a life of solicitation. Kienholz sees the past as part and parcel of the present. The limbs of the whore who is sprawled out atop
the old-fashioned sewing machine can be operated by pressing down on its pedal. It's an allegory of mechanical love, and an emblem of what
practicing the oldest profession in the world has made these women: namely, mere marionettes and rag dolls." Edward Kienholz died in Hope, Idaho in 1994.
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