Quantum imagery.
The idea of painting a closely connected group of people came to me in a dream. However, I did not know who I was going to portray. Then a fellow Bussey artist, Caroline Gray, suggested I paint the staff who worked at at Bussey’s Social Café itself. I presented manager Maxine Nixson with a copy of a book I had made called ‘The Juice Shack Stars’ - those who had run the Juice Shack in Ali’s alleyway a few years before. Maxine agreed, and with her influence, the project commenced.
I would like to thank each individual - each of my nine ‘guinea pigs’ – for having so willingly, and enthusiastically, taken part. Namely: Dexter Dooley, Amy Dugan, Xach Hill, Maxine Nixson, George Sharville, Oscar Plant, Sassafras Thomas, Alexander Elson and Abigail Burrell.
When I was close to finishing the portraits, I realised that each piece would need a protective case. Crates are not cheap, and I was keenly aware of this; I had recently sent work to Amsterdam’s Kunst Rai in for a one-man show. Searching around for a packing solution, I realised that the portraits fitted very neatly into small, standard suitcases. Labelling the cases became a thing in its own right, and each case turned into an integral part of the work.
I hope I have created a format which can be repeated for different people, in different places, in a flexible manner. For this reason, the components of each portrait are clipped together, not stuck down. Down the line, this will allow me to re-arrange whose back of head - for example - is linked to whose front of face.
This is only the third time in my life I have invented an original format to serve the purposes of my vision. The other two were the Reindeer Werk performances, and the Predictions, both with Tom Puckey. I will expand this format over time, as I did with the others. I hope I have created a format which can be repeated for different people, in different places.
Dirk Larsen
I would like to thank each individual - each of my nine ‘guinea pigs’ – for having so willingly, and enthusiastically, taken part. Namely: Dexter Dooley, Amy Dugan, Xach Hill, Maxine Nixson, George Sharville, Oscar Plant, Sassafras Thomas, Alexander Elson and Abigail Burrell.
When I was close to finishing the portraits, I realised that each piece would need a protective case. Crates are not cheap, and I was keenly aware of this; I had recently sent work to Amsterdam’s Kunst Rai in for a one-man show. Searching around for a packing solution, I realised that the portraits fitted very neatly into small, standard suitcases. Labelling the cases became a thing in its own right, and each case turned into an integral part of the work.
I hope I have created a format which can be repeated for different people, in different places, in a flexible manner. For this reason, the components of each portrait are clipped together, not stuck down. Down the line, this will allow me to re-arrange whose back of head - for example - is linked to whose front of face.
This is only the third time in my life I have invented an original format to serve the purposes of my vision. The other two were the Reindeer Werk performances, and the Predictions, both with Tom Puckey. I will expand this format over time, as I did with the others. I hope I have created a format which can be repeated for different people, in different places.
Dirk Larsen
"Lambs to the ..." A conceptual narrative. 33 x 72 x24 cms. 2025
The Prediction
A 2025 Asemic takeover of a 1980's Text
The original cover of the original Prediction in 1980. The layout has been completely reconstructed, with some minor editing of the text. The people featured in the photo are Thom Puckey, Zofia Kulik and myself in Warsaw, Poland.
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Page 1 of The Prediction
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Page 2 of The Prediction
Page 3 of The Prediction
Page 4 of The Prediction
Page 5 of The Prediction
Page 6 of The Prediction
Page 7 of The Prediction
Page 8 of The Prediction
Page 9 of The Prediction
Page 10 of The Prediction
The Prediction. An Asemic layout of the original Prediction first published in 1980, forty-five years ago. It is in ten panels, each 66 x 91 cms. This will be shown in Amsterdam in the KustRai with Galerie Serieuze Zaken at the end of March 2025.
There will be a full colour 35 page hard-back book published by Studio Dirk. The text will be not only the original text (with a few minor edits,) but also a new commentary by Dr. Oscar Salsuar.
There will be a full colour 35 page hard-back book published by Studio Dirk. The text will be not only the original text (with a few minor edits,) but also a new commentary by Dr. Oscar Salsuar.
Coloured Out Infanta 40 x 30 cms.
And now some Candelabra from 2020.
Candelabra 3. 45 x 30 cm. Soldered wire, tin and copper , oil paint and bent candle.
Not Much ****. 14 x 36 x 8 cm. Soldered wire, shoe, Coffee Buttons, linen canvas and oil paint. 2019
Fairground Attraction . 63 x 23 x 16 cm. 2019
Family Habits. 100 x 100 cm. 2019
Bonjour Monsieur C ! 60 x 40 x 16 cm.
Family Supervision. 163 x 50 x 20 cm.
Piriformis Rabbit. 83 x 45 cm. 2019
Selfie Bear. 38 x 17 x 16 cm. 2019
Family Time (with working 10 hour clock.) 45 x 30 x 17 cm. 2019
Small Coffee Duster. 19 x 30 x 11 cm.
A Bigger Coffee Duster. 49 x 60 x 16 cm. 2019
Camden Incident: They Fukd Mi Up. They Did. 50 x 63 x 15 cm. 2019
Don Pla Wiv Nives. 43 x 33 x 10. 2019
Bird Bag 67 x 33 x 20. 2018
Earful. 25 x 15 x 5 cm. 2019
Lil Bear Pump. 27 x 20 x 11 cm. 2019
MLP Fasces. 100 x 70 x 24 cm.
MLP Fasces. Full image. 2018
Vanity Button. 20 x 8 x 6 cm. Yes, this is the introduction to my personal currency, The Coffee Button. More samples below.
By buying Coffee Buttons, you can save up to exchange them for pieces of work from Studio Dirk. They make a marvellous gift for Christmas !
Single, double and triple Coffee Buttons in their presentation cases, costing £100, £200 and £300 respectively.
Contact: [email protected]. If you want to save up more quickly, go for the Mustard Log featured below. £500 .
Contact: [email protected]. If you want to save up more quickly, go for the Mustard Log featured below. £500 .
The Mustard Log. In presentation frame.
STUDIO DIRK : The book of “The Daylight Robberry Show”: An Art Price of £763 in the UK, except at Rye Wax, Peckham, ( where it is £30 only.)
Having gained an MA from The Royal College of Art, I became an art performer, one half of Reindeer Werk. For several years we worked in Europe and North America, and performed alongside people like Laurie Anderson & Marina Abramovic. One day, I re-considered the increasingly rarefied conceptual art scene.
“What’s the baddest thing I could do?” I asked myself.
The answer was mis-en-scene art. It was despised by everyone. So I painted mis-en-scene for the next 30 years; and in time it transpired I was not alone. Artists in Cologne were venturing along the same disrespectful path. Later it became known as ‘Low Brow Art’.
I moved on to portraits, crosses, and wire constructions. Until the day I heard the Head of the Amsterdam Police speaking on the radio. He said, “a healthy society cannot exist without crime.”
I thought about my past, about the gallerists who had effectively stolen work from me down the years, and I thought, “The time has come for me to CREATE a crime. Time for me to invite three of the most dishonest individuals I know to rob me in a positive way. To create a new Gesamtkunstwerk. To re-create a new sense of loss.”
I asked them to steal my latest work - the Juice Shack Stars Project, featuring the Ali Baba Juice Shack in Rye Lane. In return, they would allow me to feature the story of the theft in a book, The Daylight Robberry Show. One responded, in an unexpected way. Some of my work, missing for 23 years, was paid for and returned.
A few months later, I put it up for sale for Monopoly Money. My buyers, some new to the art world, were over the moon.
“THE BEST BURGLARY EVER !!!” (HiGH TIMES)
“AND A GREAT CRIME WAS HAD BY ALL !!!” (ARTi)
Having gained an MA from The Royal College of Art, I became an art performer, one half of Reindeer Werk. For several years we worked in Europe and North America, and performed alongside people like Laurie Anderson & Marina Abramovic. One day, I re-considered the increasingly rarefied conceptual art scene.
“What’s the baddest thing I could do?” I asked myself.
The answer was mis-en-scene art. It was despised by everyone. So I painted mis-en-scene for the next 30 years; and in time it transpired I was not alone. Artists in Cologne were venturing along the same disrespectful path. Later it became known as ‘Low Brow Art’.
I moved on to portraits, crosses, and wire constructions. Until the day I heard the Head of the Amsterdam Police speaking on the radio. He said, “a healthy society cannot exist without crime.”
I thought about my past, about the gallerists who had effectively stolen work from me down the years, and I thought, “The time has come for me to CREATE a crime. Time for me to invite three of the most dishonest individuals I know to rob me in a positive way. To create a new Gesamtkunstwerk. To re-create a new sense of loss.”
I asked them to steal my latest work - the Juice Shack Stars Project, featuring the Ali Baba Juice Shack in Rye Lane. In return, they would allow me to feature the story of the theft in a book, The Daylight Robberry Show. One responded, in an unexpected way. Some of my work, missing for 23 years, was paid for and returned.
A few months later, I put it up for sale for Monopoly Money. My buyers, some new to the art world, were over the moon.
“THE BEST BURGLARY EVER !!!” (HiGH TIMES)
“AND A GREAT CRIME WAS HAD BY ALL !!!” (ARTi)
Ejected. 60 x 36 cm. 2019
In Out. 25 x 20 x 11 cm.
Belgian Madonna on Struth Street. 50 x 30 cm. 2018
Italian. 30 x 50 cm. 2018