Press

FAD MAGAZINE

 

"These artworks host complex themes of personal, cultural identity, fantasy and our collective relationship with commerce. Particularly, the work looks to make a sense of the idea of national and regional identity, given we are increasingly exposed to a shared global pop culture. The work prompts audiences to reflect on their own cultural experience."

Art Daily

 

Asbestos also wanted a very British symbol of hope: “The work references the ‘Eye of Newt’, an ingredient used by the witches in Shakespeare’s Macbeth, I was thinking of a symbol that was quintessentially British and perhaps wondering whether artists are a sort of cultural witch, who might be able to produce alternative ideas for our post-covid problems, this watching-eye artwork is our first ingredient.”

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Artist Bruce Asbestos Photograph by(c) Reece Straw 2020

Carnival to Catwalk

ISBN:9781350024694

Imprint:Bloomsbury Visual Arts

 

"Ostensibly, Asbestos' use of the catwalk is unconventional...he conceives of the catwalk as a 'strategy to to make artwork that merges different contexts, street wear, high fashion, performance, theatre, art...fancy dress"

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https://www.kingkongmagazine.com/2018/06/25/bruce-asbestos/

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"Bruce Asbestos  presents his AW18 collection based on the traditional folk story, Hansel and Gretel. We took the original inspiration from Bruce’s collection and turned it into a humorous fashion story with a nod to the dark fairytale."

“I think about artworks as little narratives, and I use different methods to tell a story...There is something about the pace of it I find appealing, which these small and simple narratives seem to fit into.”

 He finds this confusion attractive, allowing us to question “whether these little images [on Instagram] are artworks themselves, about artworks, or documentation of artworks”.

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"Asbestos released 1,000 video pieces on YouTube at once yesterday--a deluge of idiosyncratic clips...maybe Asbestos is playing the role of spectator and is waiting to see what the Internet will make of the extreme quantity of work."

"I think I prefer systems that don’t already have an artiness subscribed to them, I prefer Youtube to Vimeo...I think it is more attractive to undermine an intended function, there is a little bit of a thrill you can get by seeing these things as a challenge. How can I make this interesting?"

Bruce Asbestos in his studio, in front of artwork 'Bob' 2020 based on SpongeBob SquarePants

Download this image in a zip file here