Cynthia von Buhler Is Selling Herself, Cheap
By Charles Giuliano
But it is not quite what you think. Von Buhler, a nice girl of Italian American parents from Pittsfield, Mass., is no prostitute. She isn’t so much selling her body, in its entirety, but rather in bits and pieces. For just twenty-five cents, a vending machine dispenses collectable capsules containing everything from menstrual fluid (a hot selling item), to eyelashes, nail clippings, and pubic hair. The whole set has the cost equivalent of a double latte. Make sure you have a pocket full of change when visiting this fun show by The Countess, a rising superstar in the NY underworld. She once curated a show of her noble artist friends’ called "Royally Fucked."
There are many sides to this multi talented artist. In Boston, where we met, she and a partner operated one of the hippest house gallery in town. Her openings, featuring a refrigerator stocked with designer beer, were events not to be missed. She continues this in her current NY digs called CVB Space in the NYC meat packing district, a space combining studio, performance/ party space, and after hours hangout for the young and restless.
Amazingly, she finds time, despite constant hard bopping, to pursue a career as one of the most successful illustrators of her generation. She is currently at work on a cover for Rolling Stone Magazine. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, New Yorker, Newsweek, National Geographic, and other major publications. Howard Stern and Jann Wenner are among her collectors and fans. She also does wonderful children’s books. Boy, if the parents only knew; but the Countess succeeds in not telling the left hand what the right hand is doing.
The interest in vending machines and body parts evokes relics, saints and martyrs. Mary Magdalene, a fallen woman who rose again by repenting the deadly sin of Vanity, makes the occasional appearance in her work. Her paintings, mixed media assemblages and collages, have often dealt with moral issues and conflicts of sin and repentance. She emulates the looks of both Gothic and Renaissance icons using antiquated techniques, iconography, and style. Some of her work even utilizes elements such as gold leaf. She is paradoxically both ultra bad girl and deeply rooted in the Christian art of the past.
She also has a fascination with machines and gadgets. Once reworked, antique fun house machines tell your fortune. It dispenses small cards: "Abstract Expressionist. Be passionate and uncontrollable. Go to a house party and pee in the fireplace." Or, "Folk Artist. Be quaint & naïve. Bake some bread, plant a garden."
For another mechanical device, "Lil Blast-O-Past," she explained that, "while traveling cross country I found this machine. It sprays tacky male scents onto you like Drakkar and Polo. I’m altering the stickers so it dispenses memories from your past: Gym Locker Room, 1981, Prom Date 1982, and for the ladies, Homecoming Queen, 1986, or Limo Ride, NJ, 1993."
Her multi media pieces often include doves, rodents and snakes both living and dead. But she raises these pets and is anxious to point out that the stuffed ones died of natural causes. Cynthia may be strange, a bit Goth to be sure, but never, ever cruel.
