2018
Succubus
Succubus (12)
Succubus - A 21st Century She-Devil personifying the automated collective consciousness vampirizing the soul of the individual. She is playing with her cellphone, a man bound helplessly to the screen. From her pineal gland to his crotch extends an ambiguous energy beam. She towers over an archaic fantasy city. Her skin is embedded with circuity, and she wears a sort of chrome armor bikini. It is at once an allegory for humanity's relationship with the internet, and a satire of old courtship games re-invented with social media and smartphones.
Succubus was presented at Burning Man 2018. It was theme art for the 'I, Robot' Theme of the festival and was installed at the three o'clock position on the pedestal on which the Man was mounted - directly under the left leg of the Burning Man effigy. Succubus was part of a larger group exhibit at the man Pavilion that included 12 'Burnbot' sculptures that were mounted on the upper tier of the cogwheel that comprises the Man's 'base', and 4 works (including Succubus) that were mounted in niches in the pedestal on which the man stood.
After years of being in the possession of the Burning Man Foundation, the painting was returned to me by Burning Man Archivist, Christine "LadyBee" Kristen. Many thanks to LadyBee!!
The painting was executed in oil paint on a 3/4" thick Baltic Birch plywood panel. The frame was custom made by crafstman, Andrew Spalding. The design started as a digital collage derived from vintage pulp magazine sources, and is therefore categorically a part of the Pulp and Circumstance collage/painting series.
Other works in the Pulp and Circumstance series include: