Jeremy Fish
Rome-antic Delusions
- ISBN: 978-88-88493-31-2
- Format: Softcover, 21x30cm, 96pp
- Published: 2008
- Price: 20 €
In 1994 the passion for graffiti bombing lead New York born artist Jeremy Fish to San Francisco. Up and down the hills, between spray painting and skate-boarding, his original style was soon conquered the scene. Inspired by masters of punk-skate illustration such as Pushead and Jim Phillies, Fish revisits classical symbols of the genre in a narrative form. Visionary hybrids created by his fantasy, where animals have human appearance. But, often, of the face remains just the layer underneath, the skull, ironically revisited. No more a funerary icon, but a funny toy. Upside down, it is a flying house, from which a nice lady overlooks: an innocent scene that evokes a childish imagery. But it is not the sweet-hearted version, so popular today, of an ex rebel. No chocolate-box sweetness or fake kindness. On the contrary, it is a very sophisticated operation of aesthetic remix. Because, in the “society of spectacle”, it is only possible to short-circuit the real. So, even the hardest stereotypes reveal unexpected features. A world-beater of the independent creativity, founder of the brand-crew “Silly Pink Bunnies”, internationally famous for its poster, sticker, and t-shirt reproductions. DRAGO invited San Francisco’s Jeremy Fish to move to Rome for a month to create work in symbiosis with the eternal city. The result is more than an artist’s monograph.
Rome-antic Delusions is described by the artist as “a word play where reality and fantasy meet”, a reflection of both sides of his artistic persona, from solitary introspection to the exuberance of changing perspectives.
Sample pages
Praise for Rome-antic Delusions
[Next Exit]
Jeremy Fish, in Rome-antic Delusions (Drago), ispirato dalla vita quotidiana romana, “esplorando il territorio come un randagio: attratto dalla casualità di dettagli originali, quanto inaspettati” e “abbandonato alla bellezza imprevedibile della città” ha dato vita a una serie di opere che vedono bighe romane come tartarughe o il Colosseo come cappello.
Jeremy Fish, in Rome-Antic Delusions (Drago), inspired by everyday Roman life, said “exploring the territory like a stray, I was attracted to the randomness of original and unexpected details, a victim of the unpredictably beautiful city”. He gave life to a series of works that show roman chariots as turtles or the Coloseum as a hat
[Corriere della sera]
Costanti, nelle sue opere, il mondo animale, o personaggi tipici delle fiabe, associati a elementi fuori contesto, per una saga surreale dove il grazioso si fonde al grottesco. “Mi piace unire il piacevole allo spaventoso per scuotere l’osservatore e farlo riflettere sull’ambiguità del reale”, spiega Jeremy Fish.
Elements of his works, the animal world, or typical fairy tale characters, connected to strange elements out of context, for a surreal saga where the charming interfuses with grotesque. “I like to unite the pleasant with the frightening to shake up the viewer and make him think about the ambiguity of the reality”, Jeremy Fish explains.
