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| THEO MICHAEL |
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SHORT STATEMENT
Theo Michael is a generalist with a compulsion for vandalized seascapes and recycled polyurethane foam. His practice argues against speciesism and he believes that bacteria, bees, fish and humans have equal standing. Although mostly known for his graphite drawings of rough seas and extinct creatures, in recent floor based installations he sets upon hybridizing his own previous arrangements in a process that introduces errors and allows for random mutations. Rocks, soil and fruits from local markets frequently appear in his works as do odd furniture, animal parts, Sci-Fi props and ancient texts...His absurd anarcho-museographical displays lead to a rational-irrational dialectic which destabilizes ideas of hierarchy and systems of order. In Michael’s universe a banana peel is as significant as any of Picasso’s paintings and a Bobbit Worm as complex as any insurance company CEO. In the artists own words: “These works seem absurd to people embedded in modern competition systems but they should look like Zen gardens to anyone aghast with the orthodoxy.”
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