I was listening to a great Radio Lab show the other day that discussed the life of the Blues guitarist Robert Johnson. “According to legend, as a young man living on a plantation in rural Mississippi, Robert Johnson was branded with a burning desire to become a great blues musician. He was ‘instructed’ to take his guitar to a crossroad near Dockery Plantation near Clarksdale, Mississippi at midnight. There he was met by a large man (the Devil) who took the guitar and tuned it. The ‘Devil’ played a few songs and then returned the guitar to Johnson, giving him mastery of the instrument. [This was in effect, a deal with the devil mirroring the legend of Faust.] In exchange for his soul, Robert Johnson was able to create the blues for which he became famous.”
So I decided to repurpose this idea for our contemporary times – perhaps providing a situation for some aspiring musician or artist. I borrowed images of various Gothic, Romanesque, Gothic revival and Romanesque revival works, xeroxed them onto rice paper and glued them down onto primed canvas. I created little clay horns for each inserted them into the images making them into devils. The works will be placed inside and outside the Times Square subway station, the iconic "The Crossroads of the World" (although some works may wander to other locations).
Did you see one? Email me.