Dream Object (Irregularly Shaped Canvas: John Jones, The Martian Manhunter elevating Ignorance chicken above cartoon, “The Liver is the Cock’s Comb,” with Ad Reinhardt clip art elements as magnetic fields; mustache), 2010

Dream Object (Irregularly Shaped Canvas: John Jones, The Martian Manhunter elevating Ignorance chicken above cartoon, “The Liver is the Cock’s Comb,” with Ad Reinhardt clip art elements as magnetic fields; mustache), 2010

Dream Object (Irregularly Shaped Canvas: Superman in Blake scene from “Comus” illustration with Compact Vacuum Cleaner; decalcomania cave of blood diamonds; 7 deadly sins; 7 dwarfs), 2010

Dream Object (Irregularly Shaped Canvas: Superman in Blake scene from “Comus” illustration with Compact Vacuum Cleaner; decalcomania cave of blood diamonds; 7 deadly sins; 7 dwarfs), 2010

I was working on these shaped canvases and sculptures that had printed blowups of appliances and added elements such as Expressionist drips, shirtless guys in pain, cartoon and Fauvist chickens, and cartoon elements. One was like a reduced scale version of the bone sculpture with no top or exterior thin buttresses, and the biggest had Judd-like rectangular holes and a half cylinder on the back with drips coming from it. My LA dealer came in and said he wanted them all and I said, “No.” There were elements of Bacon and the shirtless men referenced the Netter CIBA-Geigy medical illustrations and probably Longo. The shapes seemed to refer to the object on the cover of Led Zeppelin’s Presence. The Baileys had tried to get a group to buy their mansion, which was now on an island in the middle of the street in Danna Ruscha’s old neighborhood. Mike [Kelley] had also done a series of quick sketches for things like “repressed school memories game” and an issue of National Geographic with an article on Nazism in rock.
—Jim Shaw

Images Courtesy of Bernier/Eliades Gallery, Athens & Patrick Painter Inc., Santa Monica; Photo: LeeAnn Nickel,
Los Angeles