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What is real, and what is fake? This question has been on Jason Dolman’s (1996) mind ever since he saw a replica of the Eiffel Tower in Las Vegas as a child. He had never laid eyes on the original in Paris. Out of Dolman’s fascination for authenticity Victor Crepsley, his slightly bolder and more theatrical alter ego, was born. Much like a magpie, Crepsley loves shiny objects and bright colours. Combing charity shops, party stores, and the internet, he collects things that draw his attention. These objects and images often relate to pop culture and mass consumerism: plastic toys, sweets, stills from science fiction films. These finds are fused together in his collages and sculptures. He thus ironically comments on the excesses of contemporary visual culture.
At Prospects, Crepsley presents a series of new sculptures depicting variations on dinosaur heads. They are based on images the artist found on the internet, transformed digitally, and subsequently printed with a 3D printer. He presents them alongside two older, collage-like sculptures in which he incorporated items like water pistols and a car light.
Crepsley’s dino heads have bright colours, thereby referring to how dinosaurs are represented in cartoons and children’s toys, while at the same time giving the sculptures a slick and contemporary look. To Crepsley, however, they are also about our fascination and desire for the past, as well as the randomness of when we are born. ‘I could just as easily have been something millions of years ago,’ he says. But instead he is a zillennial, someone situated between millennials and Gen-Z.
Text: Sarah van Binsbergen
Translated from Dutch by Marie Louise Schoondergang (The Art of Translation)