José Antonio Covo Meisel

2015

Book, 17 x 12 cm, 155 p., language : Spanish, publisher : Cain Press, Bogotá, ISBN : 978-958-46-7244-5.
Materials: ink, paper

Collection: Collection M HKA, Antwerp (Inv. no. B 2027/671).

Literary synopsis

The characters in Osamentas relampagueantes fluctuate at a seemingly random tempo between the prophetic and apocalyptic profundity of Zarathustra and the cynicism of a social class, dominant by heredity, which cohabitates with another, dominated class whom they fear but also desire. The city is like the stomach of a whale where these devoured and forgettable beings try to light a fire in the hopes of asphyxiating the animal and escaping, but ultimately they don’t even really want to get out. The constant party is a mechanical, almost industrial movement, generating content, penetration, wet kisses; it is the core of something no one recognizes fully but it rules every life unequivocally. The sea is the backdrop, a little torn by cliché but persisting like an unwanted relative. Cocaine is cocaine, cut to exhaustion, vital substance of everything, bridge between this and that, between the sacred and the profane.

Relation of the novel to the artist’s practice

As of yet, the novel is a standalone project. It bears no patent or conscious connection to the larger body of visual work. There is, nonetheless, a developed literary style and set of interests, which could be said to aptly traverse a parallel course to the visually oriented production. In recent, not yet exhibited visual work, this divide thins and flickers, but remains in a developmental stage.