The Crown Monsters - Through an Arc

1981

Not on view

This preparatory diagram for Aycock’s multimedia construction Pig of Knowledge (1984, collection of the artist) is drawn from multiple sources, including scientific theories, the industrial environment, literature, and cybernetics. The sharply delineated and isolated forms derive from images of a particle accelerator, a McCormick reaper, the structure of the inner ear, and drawings of the cosmos by a seventeenth-century mystic, suggesting Aycock’s continued fascination with systems and structures. Her interest in the complex interrelationship between science and magic, particularly the alchemical, permeates the work, reminding us that monsters, too, are the products of such fantastical thinking.

Artwork Details

Overview

Inscriptions and Markings

Provenance

Exhibition History

Title: The Crown Monsters - Through an Arc
Artist: Alice Aycock (American, born 1946)
Date: 1981
Medium: Graphite on mylar
Dimensions: 54 × 47 in. (137.2 × 119.4 cm)
Classification: Drawings
Credit Line: Gift of Sarah-Ann and Werner H. Kramarsky, 1983
Object Number: 1983.501.2
Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art

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