Ben Spiers, Hook and Crook, 2019

This poster, featuring Ben Spiers’ ‘Midnight’ (2019), was produced for his 2019 exhibition ‘Hook and Crook’ at Carl Kostyál in London.

The title of the show references the English phrase, ‘by hook or by crook’, which, dating back to 1380, means ‘by any means necessary’. Here, Spiers channels this irreverent urgency, and ditches traditional hierarchies and expectations.

The works feature nuns with flaming ginger pubes and testosterone charged bulls with shiny golden bollocks. A tangled tongue twisting kiss between zany eyed lovers. A face from Edo period Japan is rendered three dimensional with CGI precision. A sweating Tamara de Lempicka, built from the heavy musculature of one of Michelangelo’s women, recalls the war time poster ‘we can do it’. Munch’s Madonna, lit for the silver screen, ossifies from the fingers into a b-movie zombie. A deranged Miro-like, globular woman is pulled from the flatland, tormented by a decadent gilded mirror.

Year: 2019
Size: 16.5 x 23.4 inches (42.0 x 59.4 cm)
Framed: Sold unframed