Malcolm Bucknall | The Other Thing Is

Bucknall’s absurdist surrealism muddles Old Masters with tid-bits of cartoons, films, home photography and many other fascinations to create his anthropomorphic creatures. Bucknall feels that our observation of animals, as with art, is from the outside. In them we see predator devour prey, lovers join with unembarrassed abandon; we see birth, nurturing, the feathering of nests, death—all at a remove from ourselves yet mirroring our own deepest libidinous instincts, hopes and fears. Human-animal imagery has been a constant in art, folklore, religion, daydreams, and masquerade. It takes us quickly and easily to what is deep and difficult in ourselves. Bucknall aims directly at this sweet spot, a concoction of visual imagery that sums up common experience—love, fear, gawkiness, triumphalism, self-recognition.

posted on 11/7/2023