People often think of flowers as all nice and pretty, but what if they were all rotten and sticky? Artist Maisie Cousins employs spoiled florals and vegetables to explore the ideas of consumption, decay, and sex.
Egg, 2018
In her early works, she focused on using the body as a playground for both sensuality and revulsion. For example, in Lily Bum, a bottom emerges from a pool of purple, glossy solution, surrounded by flowers.
Lily Bum, 2015
The voluptuous body amidst calla lilies and roses provokes a sense of bodily attraction, immediately capturing the audience’s eyes. The use of colour is also interesting as purple is the colour of the royal, which seems to contrast dramatically with the subject. Similarly, the white lily, commonly associated with purity, innocence, and virginity, is placed beside a naked body part: the juxtaposition between two seemingly opposing ideas, nudity and purity, also lures the audience to stare longer. The work may be a pure exploration of the body aesthetics or it may embody a message that the artist is trying to convey.
Another piece, created in the same year, that Cousins used flowers in, is Finger, where a single finger presses on the stamen of a peony dripped with oily red sauce. Here the flower is not all nice and pretty, but crumpled and, especially with the oil dripped over, palpable.
Finger, 2015
The peony resembles a female genitalia. With the finger pressing it, the flower provokes not only pleasure, but also repugnance. Even without directly using a real female body, Cousins continues to explore themes of decay and sex in her work, and she continues to do so in recent works, but working with purely food and insects.
Blue, 2020
In Ectopic, pieces of nearly unidentifiable fruits and vegetables are merged together.
Ectopic, 2019
The title is suggestive of organs inside a female body. The fleshy hues also resemble visceras in the body and provokes sensuality without putting a body part straight up.
In Slug Berry, a snail chews on pieces of cherries.
Slub Berry, 2020
The wine red reminds of blood and organs, contrasted with the addition of an insect, scaled so that it appears enormous, which produces both bodily attraction and disgust. The slimy texture of the snail and glossy finish of the cherry further adds to the ambience.
Slug, 2015
Body, food, flowers, insects. They are all once seductive and will one day collapse and decay, becoming what is seen as revolting. By playfully mixing these colours and textures together, Cousins display the erotic and nauseating at the same time.
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