At last night's Private View for the exhibition I made the following remarks:
I was attracted to the opportunity to show Alexander de Cadenet’s sculptures at St Stephen Walbrook because the Christian scriptures and tradition raise important questions regarding what and how much we consume. Alex’s sculptures draw on the spiritual dimension in life to explore similar questions. The Life-Burger sculptures, in particular, explore the relationship between the spiritual dimension of art and consumerism and, at their root, are an exploration of what gives life meaning. This exhibition therefore provides a space in which profound personal reflection and review can occur.
L.A. art critic Peter Frank has stated that, "We're at a moment in modern history where the excess has gotten staggeringly wretched. Oligarchs worldwide shock us and shame themselves with their conspicuous consumption -- a consumption that extends to the rest of us, as consumed no less than as consumers. Alexander de Cadenet encapsulates this emerging neo-feudal order in his gilded and multi-decked burgers. For the meta-rich, the world is their fast food joint, and their appetite insatiable. Over 3.6 billion sold!"
When I interviewed Alex for Artlyst, I asked him why he thought this situation was problematic. He said: “What’s problematic is the desire to consume and accumulate for the sake of it – often to run away from pain or discomfort – beauty and pleasure can at some point become quite warped and grotesque without limits, where even the original value gets lost or diluted within excess. I think it’s become more and more prevalent in the world today and it’s also very much part of the art world system too in the way that artworks are commoditized and their original beauty can get lost in the transformation into status symbols.”
Art historian Edward Lucie-Smith has perceptively noted a similar paradox: “The Life-Burgers,” he says, “offer a sharp critique of the society we live in and yet simultaneously they are luxury objects in their own right”.
Alex has said that he grew up exposed to these values and it has been valuable for him as a yardstick by which to compare things to and also given insights into the darker aspects of it. As a result, he is a playful moralist; conscious of his own ambivalent relationship to ‘morality’. Meaning that “any ‘moralizing’ is not done with self-righteousness but more as a way to explore and express the inherent paradoxes and richness of life.”
We can see this at play in his other key work for this show ‘Creation’ – a large scale shiny bronze apple with three bites taken from it – two adult bites and baby bite in between. This clearly references the second Creation story in the Book of Genesis, where Eve is tempted by the serpent to eat the apple from the Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil which Adam and Eve had been forbidden to eat. Adam also eats the apple (the second adult bite) but when challenged by God passes the buck to Eve who then puts the blame on the serpent.
The Genesis Creation stories are not to be read literally, despite what the New Atheists claim. A YouGov poll, commissioned by Newman University in Birmingham, found that "72% of atheists polled believe that someone who is religious would not accept evolutionary science." "In fact, only 19% of religious respondents in the poll rejected Darwinian thinking in favour of a literal reading of the Book of Genesis."
When the Genesis Creation stories are not read literally, they can be read as descriptions of key human tendencies such as our grasping after those things that we have been told we should not have, our willingness to cross boundaries to acquire them and our refusal to accept personal responsibility for our own actions when we are found out. You can see the link between these characteristics and the consumerist desires that are satirized in the ‘Life-Burgers’. The Biblical witness is that these desires characterise every generation. This may be why the baby bite appears in Alex’s ‘Creation’ as indication to these tendencies arising in future, as well as current, generations.
Yet, Alex has also stated that, “In Genesis, we were told by God not to take a bite from the apple, yet it was by taking a bite that we became ‘self-conscious’ and self-consciousness is what is necessary for making art.” This is also a part of the story as, by eating the apple, Adam and Eve gained knowledge of good and evil. This can be understood in terms of the development of consciousness in human beings which enables us to create, but which also means that our creativity can be used for good or for evil. The creation of luxury goods and of weapons of mass destruction involve considerable creativity on our part, as human beings, but may not have contributed greatly to our own well-being or that of society.
That brings us back, I think, to the possibility that this exhibition may provide a space in which profound personal reflection and review can occur as these sculptures are an exploration of what gives life meaning and purpose.
I pray that that may be so and end with an extract from a prayer of Francis Drake, as adapted by Desmond Tutu: Disturb us, O Lord, when with the abundance of things we possess, we have lost our thirst for the water of life when, having fallen in love with time, we have ceased to dream of eternity and in our efforts to build a new earth, we have allowed our vision of Heaven to grow dim. Amen.
Alex de Cadenet shared the following reflections:
“Creations” brings together some of the recent Life-Burger sculptures and also a larger scale bronze apple with three bites taken from it.
The Life Burgers communicate a wider message but drawn from and motivated by my own personal history and background. In form, they use a totem structure of a burger with high status fillings: classic cars, watches, airplanes, money and trophy women and with varying degrees of grotesquery.
I was attracted to the opportunity to show Alexander de Cadenet’s sculptures at St Stephen Walbrook because the Christian scriptures and tradition raise important questions regarding what and how much we consume. Alex’s sculptures draw on the spiritual dimension in life to explore similar questions. The Life-Burger sculptures, in particular, explore the relationship between the spiritual dimension of art and consumerism and, at their root, are an exploration of what gives life meaning. This exhibition therefore provides a space in which profound personal reflection and review can occur.
L.A. art critic Peter Frank has stated that, "We're at a moment in modern history where the excess has gotten staggeringly wretched. Oligarchs worldwide shock us and shame themselves with their conspicuous consumption -- a consumption that extends to the rest of us, as consumed no less than as consumers. Alexander de Cadenet encapsulates this emerging neo-feudal order in his gilded and multi-decked burgers. For the meta-rich, the world is their fast food joint, and their appetite insatiable. Over 3.6 billion sold!"
When I interviewed Alex for Artlyst, I asked him why he thought this situation was problematic. He said: “What’s problematic is the desire to consume and accumulate for the sake of it – often to run away from pain or discomfort – beauty and pleasure can at some point become quite warped and grotesque without limits, where even the original value gets lost or diluted within excess. I think it’s become more and more prevalent in the world today and it’s also very much part of the art world system too in the way that artworks are commoditized and their original beauty can get lost in the transformation into status symbols.”
Art historian Edward Lucie-Smith has perceptively noted a similar paradox: “The Life-Burgers,” he says, “offer a sharp critique of the society we live in and yet simultaneously they are luxury objects in their own right”.
Alex has said that he grew up exposed to these values and it has been valuable for him as a yardstick by which to compare things to and also given insights into the darker aspects of it. As a result, he is a playful moralist; conscious of his own ambivalent relationship to ‘morality’. Meaning that “any ‘moralizing’ is not done with self-righteousness but more as a way to explore and express the inherent paradoxes and richness of life.”
We can see this at play in his other key work for this show ‘Creation’ – a large scale shiny bronze apple with three bites taken from it – two adult bites and baby bite in between. This clearly references the second Creation story in the Book of Genesis, where Eve is tempted by the serpent to eat the apple from the Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil which Adam and Eve had been forbidden to eat. Adam also eats the apple (the second adult bite) but when challenged by God passes the buck to Eve who then puts the blame on the serpent.
The Genesis Creation stories are not to be read literally, despite what the New Atheists claim. A YouGov poll, commissioned by Newman University in Birmingham, found that "72% of atheists polled believe that someone who is religious would not accept evolutionary science." "In fact, only 19% of religious respondents in the poll rejected Darwinian thinking in favour of a literal reading of the Book of Genesis."
When the Genesis Creation stories are not read literally, they can be read as descriptions of key human tendencies such as our grasping after those things that we have been told we should not have, our willingness to cross boundaries to acquire them and our refusal to accept personal responsibility for our own actions when we are found out. You can see the link between these characteristics and the consumerist desires that are satirized in the ‘Life-Burgers’. The Biblical witness is that these desires characterise every generation. This may be why the baby bite appears in Alex’s ‘Creation’ as indication to these tendencies arising in future, as well as current, generations.
Yet, Alex has also stated that, “In Genesis, we were told by God not to take a bite from the apple, yet it was by taking a bite that we became ‘self-conscious’ and self-consciousness is what is necessary for making art.” This is also a part of the story as, by eating the apple, Adam and Eve gained knowledge of good and evil. This can be understood in terms of the development of consciousness in human beings which enables us to create, but which also means that our creativity can be used for good or for evil. The creation of luxury goods and of weapons of mass destruction involve considerable creativity on our part, as human beings, but may not have contributed greatly to our own well-being or that of society.
That brings us back, I think, to the possibility that this exhibition may provide a space in which profound personal reflection and review can occur as these sculptures are an exploration of what gives life meaning and purpose.
I pray that that may be so and end with an extract from a prayer of Francis Drake, as adapted by Desmond Tutu: Disturb us, O Lord, when with the abundance of things we possess, we have lost our thirst for the water of life when, having fallen in love with time, we have ceased to dream of eternity and in our efforts to build a new earth, we have allowed our vision of Heaven to grow dim. Amen.
Alex de Cadenet shared the following reflections:
“Creations” brings together some of the recent Life-Burger sculptures and also a larger scale bronze apple with three bites taken from it.
The Life Burgers communicate a wider message but drawn from and motivated by my own personal history and background. In form, they use a totem structure of a burger with high status fillings: classic cars, watches, airplanes, money and trophy women and with varying degrees of grotesquery.
The wider message explores materialism and consumerism as way of life and while elevating the subject on the top of the burger (and giving reverence to whatever crowns the burger), the validity and significance of those systems that elevate and give status is questioned and checked. A system that may need to be checked by those that ultimately place a higher value on ownership and personal significance to the detriment of their own and mankind’s spiritual evolution. In this sense and in keeping with the Christian teaching the words of Patrick Howe, artist and author of The Awakening Artist come to mind when he said, “the Life-Burgers…conjure a fattening materialism that works like a toxic cholesterol on the spiritual heart”.
On display are examples from the different stages of the Life Burgers from the past 2 years. The more recent Trump Burgers further explore the relationship between the traditional function of monumental portrait sculpture: to honour and give reverence to the subject and the idea of those with earthly dominion being seen as a spiritual protector. For some, world leaders, influential celebrities, powerful bosses or wealthy art collectors can become directors of our life destinies and akin to gods on the material plane. The impact that these people can have on one’s life cannot be underestimated. On one level it could be the difference between survival and non-survival. These are people that we may wish to influence in order to personally benefit….Yet there is often a darker dimension to this relationship, as Shana Nys Drambot wrote in a recent article for Whitehot Magazine, “The Life Burgers are an illustration of how the initial appeal of beauty might give way to a darker meaning over time”.
The most recently completed work ‘Jester Burger’ is a self portrait and presents the artist as a jester but on the top of the Burger in the same top position as Trump and Buddha. The hierarchy of worldly power is hereby questioned and to some extent our own relationship to this hierarchy.
This show has been presented within the sacred architecture and spiritually uplifting energy of this beautiful church, designed inside and out by one of Britain’s greatest architects Sir Christopher Wren. We also have here the central alter created by one of Britain’s best known sculptors – Henry Moore.
This show would not have been complete without a central statement. If the burgers talk about both the sacred function of art to revere and to say something of the paradoxes of life, the large scale bronze apple, presented this evening in the middle of the church on the sacred alter is the culmination of the Christian tradition – redemption through consuming the body and blood of Christ.
The heart of this holy place is where such redemption occurs. It is my privilege that today we see the apple bronze sculpture with three bites – two parents bites and a child’s bite. In a sense we may ask, how can we transcend original sin, the bite that we all take by being born? For some, the body of Christ is the vehicle to connect to that deeper dimension, for others it may be to meditate in nature or connect to an artwork that can act as a portal to the deeper dimension. For some creatives transcendence may be to create an outer manifestation of their deepest most sacred connection to Life – to be able to create new forms that offer the opportunity to others to expand consciousness and to share the joy of their existence.
My intention was for the apple sculpture in the centre to say something of the transformative power of art by using the Christian symbol of temptation and here presented in the very place where redemption from sin occurs. It is a prayer offered for the evolution of humanity and deliverance from ignorance, ingrained materialism and the seemingly ever increasing thirst for worldly power.
If anyone is interested in the relationship between art and the spiritual dimension, please come on October 25, here to St. Stephen Walbrook, we are having an afternoon of talks, conversations and meditations by international artists, critics, historian and collectors about their own perspectives on this theme.
On display are examples from the different stages of the Life Burgers from the past 2 years. The more recent Trump Burgers further explore the relationship between the traditional function of monumental portrait sculpture: to honour and give reverence to the subject and the idea of those with earthly dominion being seen as a spiritual protector. For some, world leaders, influential celebrities, powerful bosses or wealthy art collectors can become directors of our life destinies and akin to gods on the material plane. The impact that these people can have on one’s life cannot be underestimated. On one level it could be the difference between survival and non-survival. These are people that we may wish to influence in order to personally benefit….Yet there is often a darker dimension to this relationship, as Shana Nys Drambot wrote in a recent article for Whitehot Magazine, “The Life Burgers are an illustration of how the initial appeal of beauty might give way to a darker meaning over time”.
The most recently completed work ‘Jester Burger’ is a self portrait and presents the artist as a jester but on the top of the Burger in the same top position as Trump and Buddha. The hierarchy of worldly power is hereby questioned and to some extent our own relationship to this hierarchy.
This show has been presented within the sacred architecture and spiritually uplifting energy of this beautiful church, designed inside and out by one of Britain’s greatest architects Sir Christopher Wren. We also have here the central alter created by one of Britain’s best known sculptors – Henry Moore.
This show would not have been complete without a central statement. If the burgers talk about both the sacred function of art to revere and to say something of the paradoxes of life, the large scale bronze apple, presented this evening in the middle of the church on the sacred alter is the culmination of the Christian tradition – redemption through consuming the body and blood of Christ.
The heart of this holy place is where such redemption occurs. It is my privilege that today we see the apple bronze sculpture with three bites – two parents bites and a child’s bite. In a sense we may ask, how can we transcend original sin, the bite that we all take by being born? For some, the body of Christ is the vehicle to connect to that deeper dimension, for others it may be to meditate in nature or connect to an artwork that can act as a portal to the deeper dimension. For some creatives transcendence may be to create an outer manifestation of their deepest most sacred connection to Life – to be able to create new forms that offer the opportunity to others to expand consciousness and to share the joy of their existence.
My intention was for the apple sculpture in the centre to say something of the transformative power of art by using the Christian symbol of temptation and here presented in the very place where redemption from sin occurs. It is a prayer offered for the evolution of humanity and deliverance from ignorance, ingrained materialism and the seemingly ever increasing thirst for worldly power.
If anyone is interested in the relationship between art and the spiritual dimension, please come on October 25, here to St. Stephen Walbrook, we are having an afternoon of talks, conversations and meditations by international artists, critics, historian and collectors about their own perspectives on this theme.
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The Flying Lizards - Money.
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