Pedro
Not long ago NY artist Buff Monster teased us with his first larger sized sculpture. Little did we knew that a massive Sculpture Show was on it’s way. Get ready to melty epic event;
Melt With Me. The show is a culmination of over a year of the artist’s explorations in sculpture, from large scale pieces to the gritty smaller concrete ones.
We’ll let Buff Monster himself give you the rundown;
“Why ice cream?”
“I’ve been creating ice cream imagery for over 15 years. How could one subject possibly hold my interest for so long?
Art is about life; ice cream is a metaphor for life. The melty imagery is a metaphor the never-ending phenomenon of good looks, physical ability and mental capacity all constantly slipping away. So the work is really about the passing of time. Time impacts all things, but nothing quite so dramatically as ice cream. Considering the unique qualities of ice cream, it’s the perfect modern symbol of death and decay.
Melting is also a metaphor for the slow decay of our society. It’s not a singular dramatic event; it’s a slow fluid process (fueled by technology). Our cultural values, our ways of communicating and relating to one another, our political climate (in the US and abroad) are all eroding (melting). The news is full of entertainment and political figures acting in completely unheard of just a short time ago. Our society is one big ice cream cone melting towards nothing. And it’s melting much faster than any of us could have imagined.
“Mister Melty” has become an icon and symbol of the Meltiverse. He’s confident, eternally optimistic and blissfully unaware of his certain fate. His one eye represents a singular (optimistic) worldview. At his worst, he’s one of us; at his best, he’s aspirational. Presented here in concrete and high-impact resin and fiberglass, he’ll maintain his melty state forever. We should be so lucky.”
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Concrete Sculptures
“This show is the culmination of a variety of experiments with presenting one figure (Mister Melty) in multiple materials. Mister Melty has been presented as a vinyl toy and resin figure at 3 inches, and as a candle at 5 inches. I’ll continue to use those materials as is appropriate, but I really wanted to explore other materials; materials that are conceptually the exact opposite of melty ice cream.
As a street artist, the materials I work with the most are spray paint and concrete. So we’ve been experimenting with several kinds of concrete until we found the best one. Each sculpture has been cast by hand in my LES studio in two sizes: 5″ and 7.5″. Then each one was chiselled until it looked just right. Each one is unique! They’ve all been properly primed and painted with spray paint. The resulting pieces resemble sculpted icons of a past society, and they all certainly contradict the soft and flowing nature of ice cream.
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Big Mister Melty
“The main focus of the show is this large version of Mister Melty. He stands 24″ tall and has been in the works for over a year. For this piece, he was sculpted from scratch and produced in high-impact resin, fiberglass and automotive paint. This really is the ultimate expression of the figure; the glossy finish, the smooth lines and the cartoony features all create this wonderfully optimistic and refined character.
We’ll also be showing some new big paintings, which will really tie the installation together. Hope to see you there!”
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