John Cake
Neurowonky, Northern scum, abstract, absurdism.
I’m a child of 70s/80s North West England, where punk was a spirit, not a pose.
Where Hip Hop, House and Techno resonated and thrived.
Where life was and still is brutally irrational.
(Scally, DIY, remix, laugh.)
My works are a way of mapping and processing the symptoms of living my life artistically and autistically.
I revel in the perverse pleasure that I find meaning in society’s debris, errors and redundancies.
I flip between digital and analogue techniques to abstract, clip, collide and layer these elements.
They coalesce into a wild-style-mind-map, a calligraphic vibrant web of visual fragments that resist and relinquish authority.
A model cannon protrudes from a pile of rubble.
Soviet Pooh dawdles beneath an Ultra’s burning scooter.
Potato-snack-based omens lie ensnared as kit-designs are ruined by sponsors.
I largely make this art for myself, to create an illogical nonsense, to refocus my intentions. But for you, I want my work to induce a state where your certainties are thrown off-kilter yet inspire optimism and joy.