*** A R T *** Ben Frost is dead *** A R T ***
 

Fury at drug-taking kids painting
Anna Edwards of MX
July 18, 2007



A PAINTING of two children preparing to shoot up displayed in a shop window in Fortitude Valley has sparked a public debate, amid calls for customers to boycott the boutique.

The painting has been hanging in the front window of Ultra Suite, on Ann St, since Friday.
Drug Arm, a drug awareness, rehabilitation and management organisation, and passers-by have requested it be removed, but the boutique owner has yet to make a decision.

"Is the retailer condoning illicit drug use, or accepting this behaviour? Perhaps such a controversial piece would be better suited to a private gallery," Drug Arm executive director Dennis Young said.

He called for customers to boycott the shop until it was removed.

But Ultra Suite owner Mykl Notman, who has owned the artwork White children playing in the late 1900s, by ex-Brisbane artist Ben Frost, for more than a decade, said the painting was a comment piece and did not glamorise or condone drugs.

"If this painting is evoking a conversation about a terrible problem in our community and society, it is probably doing its job," he said.

Reactions from people walking past Ultra Suite this morning were mixed.

"Personally, I think its disgusting," said Amy Hinterdorfer, 21.

"We walked past on Friday night and there were people standing around talking about it, and we talked about it on the bus yesterday," Lorrae Hendry, 23, said.

Ben Frost is a painter, who currently lives and works in Sydney, Australia.
His work explores themes of alienation, dispossession, and perversity that exists behind the facade of contemporary western society. By subverting mainstream iconography from the advertising, entertainment and political spectrum he creates a visual and conceptual framework that is bold, confronting and often contraversial.







So, what do you think of his work?

>>>www.benfrostisdead.com<<<

If you ask me, anything goes.

It is ok, nothing special. They are more like giant works of graphic art, and not particularly striking at that. The first painting is very mid-90's in a way, when you couldn't move for bands that had artwork on their record sleeves like that (see Radiohead as the epitome of such phenomenon). I kinda prefer the second and third one, but they are nothing to write home about.

This perhaps?


1.95
illustration for book 'birds crap wherever they want, because they know it's all shit down here' 1999


The Gang's All Here - pencil on paper -
Blue Magazine 2004
This pictures goes with a story about the history of gay orgies. I had to sift through gay orgy porn sites for a week to get the right poses.


My Life as a Fake - collage and digital image- 2003
Black + White magazine - issue 68
This is an illustration for a review of Peter Carey's book My Life As a Fake, which is about a poet linked to the communist party whose stories are published from manuscripts he found by a long dead person. Shown here is detail of the collage which is made up of too many hours of cutting out little bits of paper. The dark areas to show the jacket lines are done on the computer.

I don't like everything he's done, but he is very diverse. Not to mention the volume of work he has put out for magazines etc.

The first painting posted of the two kids about to shoot up seems pretty tame to me, by today's standards. I like the plane filling the space in the background, "like a plane crash that never hits the ground".
I agree with Sarramkrop, I don't think they are anything special, however, interesting thread Tokolosh.

i like his stuff but then again i have always liked things like that. there is a berlin artist who does very similar things to him but uses old images from the eastern block and western culture, obvious maybe but good.

I love them all

Nice, I just learned about Ben Frost a few months back. I love how he manipulates pop icons

Never heard of him before this thread, but he seems great! Love his stuff.

The store window painting? What did the store owner expect? Idiot. He had to know it would provoke people.

I like the painting, and think it is more appropriate on a gallery wall, but if that's what a store owner wants to do to drive away business, that's his problem.

Yeah, thanks for introducing me to Mr. Frost here. He doesn't believe in negative space, does he? hehe

Although it was years ago, I've done some things using the same sorts of ideas, content, and themes. Frost is a tad pop-&-illustation overload in comparison though, but you gotta love the stuff from ads or magazines. I use to collage-in or paint-in similar things on some of my works. Looks like he loves Robert Williams, Richard Hamilton and Andy Warhol best. Most of these are pretty alright.

I like this one best






because it looks the most original.

& these two

 

(although overloaded with illustrations from pop iconography) are successful also.

I agree. They're all a bit obvious.
The first painting has some merit in that it is causing a debate, but the rest - wallpaper.

better than that stupid bed by a MILE

Dig the work what a shame about the death.

He's not dead. He's alive and well. That's the domain name of his site.

The thing with this sort of stuff is that it is ok to look at, but it is way too identical to so many other paintings. I have a friend who does that sort of thing using hospital imagery (people getting injected into ears etc) that is done exactly in that same kind of style. The plane bit is also a theme that is present in this sort images very often, possibly because the inspiration for that style is taken mainly from leaflets that explain what to do in case of emergency on a plane etc etc. My mate's painting are very similar to this Butthole Surfers cover, but with a more 'clinical' look:





The above was designed by Paul Mavrides, an American comic book artist.

I wonder how Frost and others get away with copyright infringement.

Does your friend have a website Sarra?

He does, I'll ask him for a link. He also makes some really sweet little dolls based on the appearence of his boyfriend, his friends, family etc. It is nothing special, but it is good to look at, apart from the dolls which are simply awesome.

when it comes to art, there is no copyright infringment.