cousboy

17.-24.09.17:

 

Life was ok.

 

Cousboy

17.-24.09.17: Life was ok. – cousboy
 
“Life was ok.” is cousboy’s level-headed evaluation of his 27 years of life.
The title contains the cynical tone typical to a generation that deals with, addresses and expresses virtually all emotions through the creation and use of memes. If we consider them as an offspring of cartoons and comics, cousboy manages to take their stylistics and translate them into a language visually much more similar to their ancestors.
 
He creates images of sometimes grotesk situations, e.g. falcons feasting on their prey, that become universally relatable through the title often bearing a revelation about the artist himself (“Am I cruel enough for you?”) while essentially being very specific to social media culture nonetheless. Commenting on the omnipresent “copy paste”-culture, he borrows references as a form of reproduction, replication and citation to make them his own by changing the medium and giving the works titles that position them in a new context.
 
Cousboy’s works embody a universal #mood through the confrontation with his immediate and virtual surroundings. This confrontation is a core element of his work though it is simultaneously interpretable as a confrontation with his inner dichotomies. Addressing and portraying fragments of an arabic/north african culture, lifestyle and its perceptions in the Western countries, he draws from his own Moroccan and Swiss background and his on-going feeling of not-belonging and effort to unite his academic and artistic side.
The mere imitation and portrayal of certain aspects, such as Morocco’s national motto God, Nation, King, convey his criticism while debating his entitlement to even voice said critique.
In a similar manner, he challenges the value ranking of drawing and painting tools. Assuming an internet-affine “idea-over-production”-nature for his spontaneous digital drawings created with free drawing apps and his digital color paintings created with the known to all Microsoft Paint, he credits them with equal validity as his acrylic and gouache paintings and pencil drawings.
 
“Life was ok.” is cousboy’s first solo-exhibition. He recently graduated from his Master’s programme in History, and currently lives and works in Zurich.
 
Press Release