Ben Frost Returns With His Latest Limited Edition Print Release Can’t Sleep Clowns Will Eat Me

1xRun Thru Interview
Can’t Sleep Clowns Will Eat Me by Ben Frost

1xRun: Tell us a little bit about this piece…
Ben Frost: The world is run by clowns.  Moronic and colorful, they dance across our television screens touting surreal propaganda and advertising slogans in a bizarre theatrical performance without intermission.  No wonder I have trouble sleeping.
 I use mini-dialogues that come together to make up an overall pastiche, that reflects how I see the world – especially as it is delivered to us through the media.  In these ‘mash-up’ paintings, countless characters exist and interact within the same picture plane, to create a frenetic snapshot of the chaos that we endure in our every-day lives.
 Like a news-reader delivering her nightly war on terror report, the evil witch in the center of the painting presents us with a skeletal bunny carcass just in time for Easter.  Her red and white collar shows where her real allegiance lies, as Mickey Mouse reaches for his shotgun to ritually execute either himself or perhaps Superman who is too busy eating hamburgers to save the world.  Far in the distance Elliot attempts to return E.T. ‘home’, despite the wheel suddenly coming off his BMX – but this shouldn’t worry us, as the cogs of industry continue to turn as we collectively suck on the un-circumcised monster cock of the oil industry, hoping for just a little more ‘juice’.

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1xRUN: What materials did you use to create this piece?
Ben Frost: The original painting measured 1.2 x 1.2m and was hand-painted with acrylic and aerosol.

1xRun: When was the piece created?
Ben Frost: It was made in 2013, for the exhibition ‘Company of Thieves’ at Inner State Gallery in Detroit, Michigan.

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1xRun: How long did this piece take?
Ben Frost: I usually work on 2 or 3 large paintings at a time – adding elements to one painting, then swapping it over to work on the next one.  The process is quite ‘organic’, in that I don’t necessarily plan where all the elements are going to go beforehand.  For example – the evil witch was painted on the canvas before I decided what to put in her hands, or that there was space to add the Coca-Cola logo in her collar.  Each piece would take about a week working at full steam, but I find painting a ‘problem-solving’ process, so it can take longer considering the time required to think and imagine different visual outcomes.

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1xRun: What is unique about this piece?
Ben Frost: There is a really good balance between the tonal brushwork on the girl sucking on the Exxon cock, the flat cartoon-like sections and the gestural fluorescent blood-like drips that intersect them.

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1xRun: What have you been up to since since April’s print release of Know Your Product?
Ben Frost: I did an exhibition in Brighton in the UK that went really well.  It was covered on the BBC news, which is highly ironic considering my tortured obsession with the media.  I also did a solo show in LA at Soze Gallery and am currently back in Australia preparing for an exhibition in Italy in November.

1xRUN: Where can we find you?
Ben Frost:  WebsiteFacebookTwitter + Instagram @benfrostisdead

-1xRUN