Monica Cook‘s creatures are built with the discarded scraps of the world: pins, beads, telephone cords, dog toys, bottles, and more. Cobs of corn or fake hands become ribs; beads and rope become intestines. The result is a collection of sculptures and videos that appear directly tied to the natural world, even if they are a product of man’s presence.
“Cook scours the streets, the trash, the networks of global commercial distribution, for pieces that become her work,” a statement says. “Feathers, latex, glass grapes, dishsoap bottles, industrial molds, pantyhose, glitter, rubber nipples, fur, the treasured and the overlooked and the discarded, mix in a sublime jumble that reveals the omnivorous imagination of the artist. The colors are dreamy pastels, arctic whites, fleshy petal-tones, glossy intestinal shades. Everything that enters the work is recognizable – mundane products or biological materials – estranged from familiarity by the breath of life that inhabits the finished forms. Like hyperreal golems, their clay is magically occupied, inhabited, animated.”
See more of her work below.
