Vendon Zarkulese
Zarkulese on Zarkulese
Art is what I say so. Who will deny that I am an artist?
With these provocative statements, carved into wheels of cured picnic meat and couriered to the curators of the finest art galleries of London, Paris, Tokyo, Sydney and New York, Vendon Zarkulese burst onto the conceptual art scene and popped the snooty balloon forever. His drawings, sometimes with a ruler, sometimes without, were to cause a spontaneous uproar amongst critics with some even deceasing themselves in protest at what became known as the New Style.
In 1994, Zarkulese exhibited the actual Mona Lisa emerging from a full Hoover bag and entitled, "Art Exists in a Vacuum". The title was considered so clever that no further art was made for the next four and a half years.
But it was Zarkulese's Diplodocus series that established him forever as the most formidable talent of the modern generation. The works (some drawn with a ruler, some without) represent poignant musings on Zarkulese's dominant themes of power, sex, money and dinosaurs of the Kimmerigdian stage.
Diplodocus Series
Diplodocus after Vermeer
(without ruler)
This homage to the Delft School depicts a diplodocus in an informal pose, full of the ebullience of the first flush of youth. The peaked cap can be considered to symbolise romantic, rather than sexual, love, whereas the sunglasses are an unmistakeable statement of material wealth. The upturned thumb symbolises "Eyyy!" like Fonzie.
Diplodocuses Humping
(with ruler)
Zarkulese has evoked the earthy fury of the carnal senses with this pithy imagining. The geometricity of the styling demands to ask the observer: "How, why and where are you perceiving this? And what? And do you want to be?". At the end of all this, like the proverbial monkey dangling from a length of twine, is death. Momento mori, Zarkulese! The choice of notepaper as a medium is typical of his impish snook cocking.