The Decapitator - Contemporary Art Day Sale London Friday, October 17, 2008 | Phillips

Create your first list.

Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.

  • Provenance

    Acquired directly from the artist by the present owner

  • Catalogue Essay

    The Decapitator stomped onto the scene last year, eliciting responses like 'original', 'genius', 'brilliant' and 'twisted'.
    This culture-jamming street artist annihilates the images in advertising, removing people's heads and leaving nothing but gory stumps. His work has had bloody effects on Bridget Bardot, Sarah Jessica Parker, a Playboy Bunny, Kermit the Frog, and the cast of High School Musical - turning ordinary advertising into pieces of subversive art. His irreverent, disruptive and thought provoking 'subvertising', has gained him coverage in the Guardian, The Telegraph, Wired and a myraid of other international press.
    This powerful piece of street art is the first time the Decapitator has featured in his own work - a vivid, compelling and gruesome self-portrait. This one-off, lenticular photograph captures three moments in time, taking its viewers on the journey of a decapitation.
    First we see the Moet-Chandon advertisement with a couple kissing in a magical environment. The Decapitator approaches the couple, carrying his art like a weapon - a hunter of pop culture. When viewed straight on, the next piece of the story unfolds, as the Decapitator goes to work, pasting his decapitated image on top of the existing ad. And finally, this piece vividly imitates life as the Decapitator makes his escape, leaving the scene of the crime. The couple's kiss has ended abruptly, her head removed, and his face covered in his lover's blood. The peice leaves the viewer with a sense that the Decapitator has only begun.

16

Be Fabulous

2008
Lenticular photograph in artist's frame.
185 x 130.6 cm. (51 3/4 x 72 7/8 in).
This work is from an edition of three and two artist's proofs.

Estimate
£4,000 - 6,000 

Contemporary Art Day Sale

18 Oct 2008 2pm
London