Ben Frost is a sniper. He’s exacting. While I spray bullets all over the place trying to get out several nervous sentences, his answers are accurate in a way that only years of introspection afford. He’s as deliberate in his speech as he is in his work. Everything is precisely where it should be.
It’s hard to believe Ben Frost only got his big break in 2002, when he was plucked from a pool of up-and-comers to be a part of Sydney Museum of Contemporary Art’s Primavera: Young Artists Under 35. The piece titled Where do you want to go today (2000) spanned more than ten metres and delved deep into the belly of Generation (bu)Y.
'You feel guilty that you’re part of this capitalist-corporate-western-death-machine.'
In much of his work Frost continues to analyse our insatiable hunger to consume and those that feed such a hunger. And while these themes might not seem entirely new, Frost is among very few artists who seem to truly understand the intricacies and contradictions of living in such a commercial era. ‘It’s like even children these days are born guilty. You feel guilty that you’re part of this capitalist-corporate-western-death-machine. It’s like a circus that’s dancing around the world destroying everything and no matter what you do you’re a part of it.’
‘I use lots of appropriation and subvert logos,’ Frost explains. It takes me a few minutes to truly understand the ripple effect of something so clever in its simplicity. Taint a logo or mascot and you essentially devalue an entire corporate empire.
‘As the public we can’t have any impact on corporations and what they do to society. So one way of taking back that power is to play with mascots. I put those characters in situations and positions that they shouldn’t be in. In a sense it gives me and then anyone who views it a sense of power.’
Ben Frost stands rigid at a busy Tokyo intersection in a white suit and red thongs. At least the thongs look red, but that could also be the litres of blood spewing out from the bundle of motionless puppies in his arms. It’s 2003 and Ben Frost is living in Tokyo. The blood soaked suit is part of his performance piece, Untitled Bleeding Man: Project to Give Birth to Robot Puppies.
This performance piece is further testament to Frost’s bravery in experimenting with medium, form and theme. And while his work can take many shapes it shares two noticeable commonalities.
One: it’s intelligent.
Two: it’s an enormous meal.
A Ben Frost piece won’t flitter in and out of your life in a matter of seconds. His work is made up of layers upon layers of meaning. Whether it’s a colourful sculpture of Bambi releasing a waterfall of mini Bambi’s from its sex-organ or his piece, Yellow Peril, that features a cluster of jaunty Pokemons, Frost is never ‘lite’ on meaning. His pieces ask a lot of their viewers, as good art should.
‘Good art is something that has a sense of immediacy to it. Something that goes against the grain of something else – whether it’s aesthetically or conceptually or politically.’ Yet another perfect example of his precision.
‘I get really annoyed when I see vacuous work … when I look at artwork I want to be engaged and I think most people want that as well. That’s one of the reasons why I make paintings with a lot of imagery. There are a lot of different readings in the work.’
‘Birds shit wherever they want 'cause they all know it’s crap down here’
Reading over many of Frost’s previous interviews and pouring over much of his work had me worried that his overwhelming awareness had come with unforgivable cynicism. Who could blame me with sentiments like: ‘Birds shit wherever they want 'cause they all know it’s crap down here’, stencilled on his 2005 piece, birds and bad things.
He assures me otherwise. ‘If you question everything in the world around you it’s a really scary place, but if you keep a sense of naivety then you can continue being a part of the circus.’ Selective ignorance, it would seem, is the key to survival. ‘It’s a really wonderful and exciting world, but at the same time it’s horrible and disgusting,’ concedes Frost.
So how to keep a healthy level of ignorance and enlightenment, you ask? Take a number, because Frost is in the same sinking ship as the rest of us and struggles to find the balance between conscience and consumption. ‘When you’re offered opportunities where they are going to pay you X amount of dollars and you see that the style could work in a certain application it’s really difficult to go, “I’m going to help sell someone else’s product with my work.”’
Frost has just returned from his first solo show in New York titled, Don’t Try This At Home. Some might liken this to achieving a legendary debut album. Some might also predict that the next chapter in Frost’s art career is to be nothing more than a stinky follow-up release destined for the sale bin. Frost is well aware of the danger in becoming too comfortable with success and is not betting on his profile to pass off second-rate work. ‘You have to be hungry for it. You have to think of ways to extend the challenge,’ he insists. So don’t expect a disappointing follow-up. Instead, anticipate more innovation and an evolution that will see more imagery from his work come to life in 3D.
Perhaps the most pleasing thing about Ben Frost is how well he understands his responsibility as an artist. He commits to his work and his words as explicitly as he commits to his audience. ‘It’s like a steam train and you’re up the front and your shovelling coal into the engine – but the engine is actually the public and you’re just stuffing as much meaningful and interesting stuff you can to keep the fire burning.’
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