The Last Days of Mankind

As I mentioned in my previous post about Richard Hawkins' studio visit, some many years ago Richard house-sat for me. Patrick, my boyfriend at the time wrote up some plant-watering instructions at taped them to the 'fridge. When we returned, the drawing/collage pictured above was on the other side. If you click on it, a larger image will appear. In case parts are not legible, I thought I'd type out some of the text.

Central is the swooning figure, circumscribed by Pascal: "We run heedlessly into the abyss after first putting something in front to stop us seeing it."

On the left panel is the Abyss ~ Void. It effluviates shit matter into a non-overlapping magisteria below, and off-gasses Flatulent Spirit above. Above this is the Holy Trinity of Matt Dillon, Tom Cruise, and Maxwell Caulfield. Below all this is Man's State, depicting masturbation with the venn diagram overlapping the self and non-self, which intersects at sex. Portions of the Non-Self include Literature, Art, and Pornography, and spin off Discontentment, Confusion, Bitterness, and Wrestling.

The right panel depicts the Outhouse of Human Despair (kunststrasse, pissoire d'artiste), the gasses of which comprise Heaven. Out of the bottom are what appear to be turds, which descend into hell. Below this is the list, "Inhabiteurs de Hell" which includes Paul Lynde, Mongomery Clift, Duc d'Orleans, James Dean, Oscar Wilde, Carravaggio, August Strindberg, John Wayne (crossed out), Marcel Duchamp, Marilyn Monroe, Herbert Hoover, and Jean Cocteau.

The Swooning figure's various parts are labeled Kafka, von Kleist, Beckett, Goethe, Wittgenstein, Voltaire, Montaigne, Baudelaire, and Pascal.

It almost reads like a Rosetta Stone that could be used to interpret later works. My only question is if he meant J. Edgar Hoover instead of Herbert Hoover.

Sphere: Related Content