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Chocolate
starfish Feecal Matter, Valvu the butch frog and Woody the horny-backed
seahorse - sounds like something from Viz magazine, but actually
it's the latest creation from an upcoming challenging artist.
If the characters bestow good morals and are nice to each other
- does it matter if it's a big walking bumhole? |
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Artist
James Ford
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James
Ford launched his thought-provoking website this week after first
getting the idea for the artwork site when living in Wheathampstead,
Herts, last summer.
What
started out as research into urban myths about the children's cartoon
Captain Pugwash and drug references in The Magic Roundabout turned
into a major project which James hopes will raise important issues
as well as being a fun piece of interactive art.
"I
wanted to make a new creation. As a nation we are obsessed with
toilet humour and innuendo. My characters have names that are blatantly
innuendoes but they are innocent and not doing any harm."
The
23-year-old said that different age groups had completely different
takes on the site - for example, his parents did not notice most
of the scatological references.
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| James
is making collectible cards of each character |
"I
was trying to think if I was a parent if I would let my children
see this as the innuendo is going to be lost on them - for example
no child thinks that Tinky Winky in the Teletubbies is gay, but
he blatantly is.
"If
the characters bestow good morals and are nice to each other - does
it matter if it's a big walking bumhole? They are not fighting or
killing each other, unlike other cartoon characters."
So,
on the slick professional site you can find out about the inhabitants
of Tuna Town, including The Puss and The Crabs and join the Feecal
and Friends Fan Club. James is in the process of adding picture
stories and cuddly soft sculptures such as you would find on any
normal children's website.
James
got £2,000 of funding from the Arts Council - but is it art?
He argues that it is: "In a lot of contemporary art, the aesthetic
process has been lost. I found that I was creating art that was
quite stale and banal.
"So
I set myself a task to disregard all the rules and go back to basics
to invent something. It was the hardest thing I've ever done - but
also the most satisfying.
"I
had to figure out how to convey characters in a drawing - which
draws on traditional art skills. It was a chance to make up a character's
personality and convey it successfully through art."
His
earlier work includes Bogey Ball. Since April 2002 he has collected
nasal waste - and now it's the size of a brussel sprout.
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| Yes
.. it's a ball of snot measuring 21mm across |
"It's
a physical record of where I was and the people I've met,"
explained James. "If you're in a room with a dog, then that
will be reflected in your mucus as would be the same in you were
in a London smog.
"The
point wasn't to shock, I'm detached from it and I've looked at it
in an objective way - bogies are just a collection of dried skin.
"
Another
work from his collections is called You Just Walked Across My Jiz,
which was inspired by his sceptical friends and formulated in the
pub.
"They
were all cynical about what is art and the Turner Prize does nothing
as it's just out to shock so I decided to spread a pint of w**k
on the floor with a sign and see what happened.
"But
actually I spread nothing and people still were looking at their
shoes. It was a good insight into people's mentality."
James
is also known for his House Gymnastics - "a cross breed of
yoga, breakdancing, climbing and gymnastics in a domestic setting"
- has sparked worldwide interest.
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| Visitors
thought they were walking on semen in You Just Walked Across
My Jiz |
In
September James is going to Goldsmiths College, London to complete
an MA in Fine Art - including a project called General Carbuncle
which will see him cover a Ford Capri with red and orange toy cars
to make it look like the car General Lee from the television programme
Dukes of Hazard.
In
the meantime he is working on an interactive DVD of Feecal and Friends
with Top Trump-like cards of each character.
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