John Oswald

John Oswald, Sketches for Jacko Lantern #2, 2000 - 05, unique DVD for work in progress on a flat screen plasma display (television not included), endless loop, $4000.00	John Oswald, Sketches for Jacko Lantern #2, 2000 - 05 (detail)

The Jacko in John Oswald's chronophotic plasma image Sketches for Jacko Lantern 2 (which he calls an electron drawing) is indeed the famous singer, notorious romantic, and face shifter, currently on trial by the American justice system, but already either condemned or sanctified by everyone else. He is represented in Oswald's ever-changing image by his teen and recent visages, combined with his similarly altered and now-almost-equally-disparaged sister, as well as several other iconic faces which may have served as models for Jacko's transformation.

This hydra construct, mounted on a similarly amorphous body, combines photographed, painted and sculpted-marble elements, including references to the iconography of the impaled Saint Sebastian, Michelangelo's David as well as his Dying Slave, and the Venus deMilo. The precursor to Jacko Lantern is Janéad O'Jakriel, another chronophotic which was created for a plasma screen, and first shown at the Hayward Gallery in London England as part of Sonic Boom in 2001. Janéad consists of a gradual transformation of a 1932 photo of a nude man by George Platt-Lynes into a remarkably similar pose by Janet Jackson for a 1993 publicity photo, combined with a filigree of the features of various British rock stars.

But the Janet/Michael resemblances, their transformational appearances, and connections to historic imagery, as well as the graphic quality of Oswald's technique of morphing through varying the transparency of superimposed images, naturally led to further exploration of this hermaphroditic figure. Sketches for Jacko Lantern 2 is an iteration of a work-in-progress.

John Oswald, Crowd of Souls (version 7), 2001, lambda print from a series of unique variations, 122 x 289.5 cm, collection of the artist.

Version 10, (2005), 122 x 289.5 cm or 91.4 x 183 cm, $7500

The artist can also personalize the print on request as a special commission starting at $10,000

John Oswald, Cadavre Exquis, 1997, lambda print of video tracking shot, 267 x 30.5 cm, $3000, edition of 5

John Oswald, Distinctions B from Jacko Lantern, 2004, lambda print, 106.5 x 58.5 cm, $1,500, edition of 5. (There are three variations of this work in progress.)	John Oswald, Distinctions E from Jacko Lantern, 2004, lambda print, 106.5 x 58.5 cm, $1,500, edition of 5. (There are three variations of this work in progress.)	John Oswald, Distinctions F from Jacko Lantern, 2004, lambda print, 106.5 x 58.5 cm, $1,500, edition of 5. (There are three variations of this work in progress.)

John Oswald, Twist, 2000, lambda print, silicon veneered to plexi, 56 x 183 cm, 2/5 from an edition of 5, $2,500, On loan from the collection of Orthoconcept inc.