| “You have to have the ability to bullshit yourself,” sculptor Daniel Edwards explained in a recent telephone interview, regarding his work. The work itself is violent, ironic, and highly invested in the conflict and inherent drama of celebrity culture: he has recently sculpted Britney Spears giving birth, the first excrement of Suri Cruise, and a deceased Paris Hilton lying naked on an autopsy table. |
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Sarah Masel on Daniel Edwards
“You have to have the ability to bullshit yourself,” sculptor Daniel Edwards explained in a recent telephone interview, regarding his work. The work itself is violent, ironic, and highly invested in the conflict and inherent drama of celebrity culture: he has recently sculpted Britney Spears giving birth, the first excrement of Suri Cruise, and a deceased Paris Hilton lying naked on an autopsy table. “My work is about finding a language people are most interested in,” he said; and in today’s media-saturated, post-post-post- world, the empty language of celebrity is a pretty safe bet.
Edwards’ most recent undertaking was the aforementioned sculpture of Paris Hilton. At Capla Kesting Fine Art in Brooklyn this spring, the artist staged an interactive autopsy of the celebutante, inviting viewers to help take part in removing vital organs such as her uterus, which contained two unborn fetuses. Appropriately titled The Paris Hilton Autopsy, the project was described as just one installment of a Public Service Announcement called Campaign to Rescue Women of Youth. Wearing only a tiara and clutching her Sidekick, the sculpted Paris lay with her pet Chihuahua Tinkerbell—who wore a matching tiara—as she was literally torn apart. The press release, written by Edwards, discusses the sculpture as a means of educating high school seniors about drunk driving after prom, as well as practicing safe sex.
In a word, Edwards’ sculptures are reflections—distorted mirror images of a voyeuristic, fetishistic culture. But he himself doesn’t see the work as sexual. Perhaps a more appropriate idea is that works are not sensual: it’s The Story of the Eye of Paris Hilton, not Paris Hilton Does Dallas. His Britney Spears gives birth on all fours on a bearskin rug—and birthing is indeed one of the least sexy actions imaginable. But the fact remains that Spears’ nymphet posturing was in part responsible for her sudden fame in the late 90s, and we, the Humbert Humberts, have watched her disintegration with hungry eyes. Entropy has never been so hot.
