Bad Lemon (Creep), by American artist Kathleen Ryan, is carved out of foam and then decorated with over 10,000 beads and semiprecious stones. The process takes over two months to complete. Fruit appears throughout the artist’s practice, symbolising decadence and decline with their opulence and over-ripeness. Interestingly, while she uses manufactured glass beads to create patches of ripe skin, the more expensive, naturally occurring gemstones are reserved for the rot. “Though the mould is the decay,” she says, “it’s the most alive part”.
Kathleen Ryan (1975)
amazonite, aventurine, black onyx, Italian onyx, turquoise, labradorite, carnelian, ocean jasper, sesame jasper, serpentine, flurite, Ching Hai jade, snow quartz, magnesite, agate, breccicated jasper, rhodonite, rhodochrosite, red agate, garnet, tree agate, rose quartz, amethyst, lilac stone, limestone, marble, mother of pearl, bone, freshwater pearl, glass, steel pins on coated polystyrene
50.8 x 72.4 x 50.8 cm
Acquired in 2019
