Banks Violette

Everything, from his name, his inspiration, his excecution, it's all perfect.

The first peice I ever saw was his "Untitled" 2005 installation which revolves around the bizarre set of occurnces in Norway during the 1990's Black Metal scene. The sculpture made of salt, wood, and galvinzed steel evokes the ruined, burnt skeleton of a church which echos the images of the church burning that was rthe violent result of the real event.
"Violette's stylized imagery... draw on the alluring artifices of dark desire. Aglossy blank "screen," a destroyed drum set dripping with black stalactites, or a ghostly structure of cast burnt wood function as semi-abstract signifiers of mourning and loss, and create metaphorical reenactments of specific events or moments of transcendence...

"the drum set of black stalacites surrounding a reflceting pool of glossy black are based on an incident in California in which three boys dragged a 15 year old Elyse Marie Pahler into a eucalyptus grove. The three boys were members of a heavy metal band named "Hatred". They wrapped a belt around her neck and stabbed her twelve times, leaving her body propped on a log in the center of the grove. She lay there for eight months, during which the boys returned repeatedly. The 3 had a slavish devotion with the band Slayer, and this became a central issue during the criminal proceedings."

While only Violette's earlier work are centred in this subject matter, his art is the first of a contemporary artist, of my generation, to have really moved me.

Shamim M. Momin Banks Violette available at Amazon.com.