O.B. De Alessi

ART OU SCIENCE?

2011-12-15T06:30:00.000-08:00

I will exhibit my new series of drawings "De Bestiis" at Centre Les Récollets from Friday 16 December 2011. Opening starts at 7 PM.

CHARMETTE

2011-12-09T01:30:00.000-08:00

I was invited by my friend and artist Julia Mariscal to take part to this one day show in her apartment in Bacelona. The show happened on December the 7th 2011. I couldn't be there, but a friend of Julia's kindly took some photos.
Here is the outcome.

The videos of some of the artists exhibiting at the show

Installation of my videos "White Moon."

The performance of The Objectifiers.

I Am Not Here To Entertain You

2011-10-23T01:11:00.000-07:00

I will perform during the following event on October the 28th at the Bunhouse, Peckham, London.
Starts at 7 PM.

CHANGELINGS - Rencontres Photographiques 2011

2011-09-22T07:20:00.000-07:00

Suspended (2005)

2011-09-17T03:53:00.000-07:00

pencil on paper, 100 x 200 cm

The Hanged Girl (2011)

2011-09-10T08:53:00.001-07:00

graphite on paper, 14,5 x 21 cm

From the series "Works I did some time ago": WANT 1 and WANT 2 - oil and graphite on board, 2006

2011-09-10T08:36:00.001-07:00

'Theme of Sadness' on Transductions

2011-06-23T10:08:00.000-07:00

The great writer Thomas Moore interviewed me about my new zine Theme Of Sadness (Kiddiepunk Press) for Transductions.

Here you can read Thomas Moore's introduction and an extract from the interview:

One of the finest and most consistently impeccable art imprints that I can think of – KIDDIEPUNK – celebrates its tenth year of existence this year. The last decade has seen the label – which started life in Melbourne, Australia but is now based in Paris, France – build up a solid and darkly rich catalogue of zines, films, and records.

To celebrate its Decennial, Kiddiepunk is releasing a series of limited edition zines created by different artists of various practices. The first is by O.B. De Alessi.

Theme of Sadness is a collection of drawings by De Alessi that channel the seemingly inherent sadness attached to youth. Mysterious children stare out from the pages of the zine with expressions that appear to range from haunted to contempt. The kids cry, dance and scowl. They are very beautiful and they are very sad. Theme of Sadness fits in perfectly with the unique Kiddiepunk family.

I spoke with O.B. Alessi about the Theme of Sadness.

OK, so it’d be great if you could start off by talking a little about the genesis of Theme of Sadness. Where did the idea start?

One day I started making a small drawing of a girl dressed as a fairy. I wasn’t really thinking of a series then, it was just a single drawing and I was interested in the expression of her face more than anything else.
But then I showed it to Michael (who runs Kiddiepunk) and he liked it very much and I think he had already asked me to make a zine for Kiddiepunk. So I decided to draw more of these characters and make a series.
And, thinking of it as a series, the whole thing immediately acquired a more solid aspect in my head, it became like a little world in itself.

To read the entire interview go to Transductions

SWAN SONG

2011-06-21T07:04:00.001-07:00

A performance that took place during the opening of the show 'The Weaklings' at Five Years, London, on June the 10th 2010.

Drawings

THE WEAKLINGS

2011-05-23T07:10:00.001-07:00

A group show curated by Dennis Cooper at Five Years. More info and press release here

Sarabanda (2011)

2011-05-05T14:57:00.000-07:00

graphite on paper

YUCK'N'YUM SPRING ISSUE 2011

2011-04-28T06:14:00.001-07:00

One of my drawing has been included in the current issue of Scottish zine Yuck'n' Yum.

Click here to view or download the zine.

Theme Of Sadness on Kiddiepunk.com

2011-04-08T11:53:00.000-07:00

"Theme of Sadness" by O.B. De Alessi

This year marks 10 years since the publication of the very first Kiddiepunk zine, so as a celebration of sorts, we will be releasing a new series of limited edition zines by various artists this year. The very first of which is 'Theme of Sadness' by the amazing artist O.B. De Alessi. It features a 32-page zine encased in a printed, removable 300gsm cover and also comes with a mystery audio CD-R, each one uniquely hand-drawn on and signed by the artist. Available now!
More info here

THEME OF SADNESS

2011-03-22T13:28:00.000-07:00

My new zine, "Theme of Sadness", will be released in April 2011 by Kiddiepunk Press.

WHITE MOON

2011-02-23T04:34:00.000-08:00

White Moon' is a yet-to-be-released horror film. Woman, the main character, becomes the femme fatale Salomè and the femme fragile Ophelia as she struggles to cope with loss of control and frustrated desire. 'White Moon' is surrounded by mystery as the director has never been identified and only two scenes of the original script remain. Nobody knows how the film was intended to begin or to end. For the first time, you will be shown the few existing scenes and the original trailer .

SCENE 1

SCENE 5

DIRECTOR'S NOTES

COMING SOON

oscarscar.blogspot.com

2011-01-25T22:47:00.000-08:00

On December the 23rd 2010, the two - year long project oscarscar.blogspot.com was completed.

The blog, written from the perspective of 16 - year - old Oscar Scar, copycats Goethe's novel "The Sorrows of Young Werther".

Created in 2008 as the personification of a 19th century 'dandy', Oscar represents an eternal adolescent who needs to impersonate character after character in order to express himself.

His birth, transformations and death were also narrated through videos, graphic novels, and performance.

Oscarscar.blogspot.com has only been mentioned once so in relation to my work so far, during the interview with Jesse Hudson I did for Fanzine .

Oscar Scar appears for the last time at the beginning of a graphic novel that I am currently working on.

WHITE MOON - Oblong Gallery 1st Feb 2011

2011-01-18T16:07:00.001-08:00

Oblong presents O. B. De Alessis' first solo show 'White Moon': 'White Moon' is a yet-to-be-released horror film. Woman, the main character, becomes the femme fatale Salomè and the femme fragile Ophelia as she struggles to cope with loss of control and frustrated desire. 'White Moon' is surrounded by mystery as the director has never been identified and only two scenes of the original script remain. Nobody knows how the film was intended to begin or to end. For the first time, you will be shown the few existing scenes and the original trailer as part of a video installation and performance event.

There's Nothing Wrong

2010-12-10T06:44:00.000-08:00

performance at Arthouse, Deptford, London, September 2010.

Changelings 3 (2010)

2010-12-08T05:02:00.001-08:00

godling (2010)

2010-11-09T07:43:00.000-08:00

pen on paper

The Monster (2010)

2010-11-09T06:58:00.000-08:00

pencil on paper

Mozart (2010)

2010-11-08T02:46:00.001-08:00

pen on paper

Untitled (2010)

2010-10-28T09:36:00.001-07:00

pen on paper

The edge of the world (2010)

2010-10-28T09:29:00.000-07:00

John (2008)

2010-10-28T06:51:00.001-07:00

pencil and watercolour on paper

The day of the dead (2009)

2010-10-24T03:28:00.000-07:00

pencil on paper, 21 x 14, 5 cm

Like Other Girls (Halloween)

2010-10-24T00:00:00.000-07:00

Stammer (2010)

2010-10-19T02:11:00.000-07:00

Graphite on paper

Volo in Deltaplano (2006)

2010-10-17T03:48:00.001-07:00

Quando libera

l’aria scorre tra le dita

aperte,

le ali

a colori multipli vibrano

come un angelo umano

che non teme la follia d’Icaro.

Le ali di cera

sono corpo

là dove le ossa si fanno cave

ed il silenzio

respira

insieme al mare.

Gli occhi pieni di lacrime

perché il sogno

primordiale

pare ora

realtà,

una più irreale.

Folle gesto.

Ho saltato.

Passi pesanti, forzati,

muscoli fiacchi,

umani

verso

un vuoto

che umano

non è.

Untitled (Notes)

2010-10-16T06:08:00.000-07:00

Fear (2010)

2010-10-05T17:59:00.001-07:00

pencil on paper

November (2008)

2010-10-02T03:49:00.000-07:00

Trials (2010)

2010-09-29T15:09:00.000-07:00

pencil on paper

The Softest Voice (2010)

2010-08-23T14:01:00.001-07:00

graphite on paper, 45 x 40 cm

Thinking about my shadow, 1990 (2010)

2010-08-23T13:54:00.000-07:00

Changelings 2 (2010)

2010-08-14T11:57:00.000-07:00

Changelings (2010)

2010-08-13T04:37:00.001-07:00

Return (2010)

2010-08-11T09:08:00.000-07:00

Benedetta (2010)

2010-07-25T12:34:00.000-07:00

Oscar (2008)

2010-07-25T12:25:00.000-07:00

The Weight Of The World (2010)

2010-06-27T04:49:00.001-07:00

pencil on paper

Vampire Slayer (2010)

2010-06-20T13:58:00.001-07:00

pencil on paper, 22 x 25 cm

Bad Documentation

2010-06-18T03:22:00.000-07:00

Smoke

2010-06-14T08:49:00.001-07:00

pen on paper, 2010

See What I See (2010)

2010-05-21T12:53:00.000-07:00

Present

2010-05-21T12:47:00.001-07:00

Untitled (2008)

2010-05-14T04:20:00.001-07:00

biro on paper, 28 x 25 cm

Head of an animal

2010-05-12T07:40:00.001-07:00

Vampire, dream (2010)

2010-05-12T05:50:00.000-07:00

biro on paper, 28 x 21 cm

Senza Titolo (Piacere) (2010)

2010-05-10T11:09:00.000-07:00

biro on paper, 28 x 21 cm

from 'The Talking Darkness' (1997 - 2001): a series of poems I wrote a long time ago

2010-05-06T10:52:00.000-07:00

Grey, rugged

grey matter,

when you suffer

you feel better.

A Real Boy At Last

2010-05-03T02:08:00.000-07:00

An interview with Jesse Hudson now up on literary and art online magazine The Fanzine.

Oscar The Cat (extract from self published version, 2010, 7/7)

2010-04-09T02:15:00.000-07:00

REVE (2009/10)

2010-04-09T01:36:00.001-07:00

Il Mistero del Doppio Dubbio - Casa Orioles Arte Contemporanea, Palermo, March - April 2010

2010-04-06T06:54:00.000-07:00

Untitled

2010-04-04T13:03:00.000-07:00

That's Where You'll Find Me (2010)

2010-03-11T06:00:00.000-08:00

Il Mistero del Doppio Dubbio

2010-03-07T07:57:00.000-08:00

Slayer (2010)

2010-02-28T06:10:00.001-08:00

Ancora (2010)

2010-02-04T05:46:00.000-08:00

Libertine

2010-02-03T15:45:00.000-08:00

Better By You Better Than Me (documentation of performance) Guest Project Space, London, 2010

2010-02-01T03:58:00.001-08:00

The video playing in my site - specific installation 'Written In The Stars' (2009)

2010-01-19T14:15:00.000-08:00

From the series "Works I did some time ago": Want 3 - 2006

2010-01-16T03:44:00.000-08:00

oil, graphite and gesso on canvas

Scapegoat Society

2010-01-15T04:08:00.000-08:00

I'll be performing on January the 30th

Press Release:

9 January–21 February 2010
Guest Projects, Sunbury House, 1 Andrews Road, London, E8 4QL

Open: Friday–Sunday, 12–6pm
Private view: 8 January, 6.30–9pm

"SCAPEGOAT SOCIETY is a multi-disciplinary exhibition which explores the role of the scapegoat in contemporary society. Scapegoating is a hostile process through which people attempt to absolve themselves from culpability, by moving blame towards a target person or group. This age-old phenomenon is as prevalent today as it was in the times of witchhunts, and is a fundamental part of the human condition".

Curated by norn, in collaboration with Mark McGowan

Sugar Daddy

2010-01-11T05:34:00.000-08:00

Last Days 2

2010-01-11T04:55:00.000-08:00

Last Days

2010-01-03T06:36:00.001-08:00

Thinning Paper (1999 - 2007)

2009-12-28T02:39:00.000-08:00

Home

2009-12-25T14:50:00.000-08:00

Dead Man's Bones (2009)

2009-12-20T05:59:00.000-08:00

FANNY AND ALEXANDER Ingmar Bergman (1982)

2009-12-19T02:03:00.000-08:00

Smell

2009-12-17T04:05:00.000-08:00

Yuck'n'Yum Winter Issue now Online

2009-12-14T16:37:00.000-08:00

Viewable online or downloadable here:

http://www.yucknyum.com/winter09/winter09/index_.html

Untitled (2009)

2009-12-11T12:12:00.001-08:00

From the series "Works I did some time ago": 34.600 - 2007

2009-12-10T02:50:00.000-08:00

Beasts (2009)

2009-12-05T04:20:00.001-08:00

William

2009-12-04T11:33:00.000-08:00

biro on paper, 2009

Time

2009-12-04T10:51:00.000-08:00

pen and wash on paper, 2009

Gardens

2009-12-03T06:42:00.001-08:00

When I Couldn't Breath (2008)

2009-12-02T01:19:00.000-08:00

(both) collage on cardboard

Gwynplaine (2007)

2009-12-01T02:01:00.000-08:00

Cerebrum

2009-11-29T03:45:00.000-08:00

Stress led me to stick my left index into my left nostril. It was then that, holding my stomach tight not to throw up, I realized that I was touching the end of a slimy but solid string that went all the way up to where grey knotted matter reigns: that hanging string was in fact my brain which, in some mysterious way, had found its way out to the open air. I took the slime between index and thumb, and pulled. I sensed my brain slowly unrolling. I felt it moving like a ball of wool soaked with water. And the more I pulled, the more that horror emerged, like a tapeworm, from my body.

I used what I had left of my brain to think furiously about every thing, about all the thinkable things in every place and every time.

I only had a few moments left before I completely lost my mind.

from the series "Works I did some time ago": Little Leopold, 2007

2009-11-29T03:35:00.001-08:00

February 2005

2009-11-28T04:51:00.000-08:00

And I find myself in this forest I don't recognize, and I wander and everything flows over me, and the air is that of old times. I remember the light strange.

Nowhere. I turn around observe everybody and nobody, kids, faces different. And similar, far then close, and the air is neither warm nor cold fine I am feeling fine like being in London if I close my eyes perhaps. But the air is the right one the sky too, so artificial like a sheet stretched upon me, upon us even though the others don't realize how funny that horizontal thing that divides the above from the below so well can be, two strips and we move, the others move, I still watch and if I walk it is only my head, deranged senses without having taken anything, why, and yet what I see is too bright and what I hear is too loud like in a dream and head spins and I am swallowed by a sense of peace and fear in which to be in Liverpool Street Station or here or at the seaside has no importance.

And nobody speaks to me because I don't speak to anybody. They look at me because I look at them and they go and I look for something and me not at home because, why should I go home already if here it is not cold? And time is still. I watch myself like in a movie and I think and the muscles of my face stretch in a grin of speechlessness until my facial features start loosing shape and my face melts and I become part of the wall. This heat cannot be real! Not heat, more dead, dead time, it doesn't breath, air holds breath and suffocates. The houses are so strange, thousands of people suspended on different floors, one walking on another's head one washes another's head another paints someone else's feet...

I don't know anything anymore I don't remember I read a lot and I don't remember, I knew many things and I don't know them anymore I am empty my brain a hole if you peep through you will see the sky white and the light fake too bright.

2009-11-28T04:50:00.000-08:00

2009-11-26T11:35:00.000-08:00

To be a prostitute for a day of festivity, a hidden door in Pimlico, light that changes and becomes green, and men and boys. Beds. There is a sound, yes, it's that of a bouncing piano. A bit of whisky, and here you are, writing down your past without being able to stop. Just, don't scream!

Let others talk, cry and laugh, loudly even, but don't you scream, ever.

How could a father be happy, if all one can see is sex? He will switch to another channel, quietly and a little bit embarrassed. Why?

- because of the sex he is watching

- because of sex in general

- because his son is watching, together with him, sex.

- because of having to change channel for this reason.

- because of what his son could be thinking about the fact that his father doesn't want him to watch a sex scene.

And the mother, where is she?

Sitting there, in silence.

Dumb, 2008

2009-11-26T11:17:00.000-08:00

2009-11-26T05:19:00.000-08:00

Freckled through the lenses

face cut out between the body and the wall, both black.

Fingers tight around the smoke stretch towards the window unshut, cold.

The thin panic of the old present against which one cannot fight:

the beauty of the lips, black and white, full, half open.

We will never see such youthfulness again, everything' s lost.

The shlam! of the present vitality is not enough to make us forget about the future, about tomorrow, a day more and a day less.

Countdown, but when it's over we stop.

Muscles weaker and weaker, they freeze instead of warming up.

and when the signal is triggered, the knees give in.

to think that I didn't even want to take part in that race...myself, I never liked competitions.

2009-11-25T15:56:00.001-08:00

The girl of tulips and flies

2009-11-25T13:45:00.000-08:00

Fingers bleed.

A stage made of white marble at the end of a road populated with tulips and flies.

The knocking of your legs, quick, bones are so light they seem cave inside. The silken blonde whisk of your hair the color of a tulip. Eyes are opalescent like the bodies of flies.

The sun cries rain cold and salty.

"Don't be scared" - said the man, tall, to the little figure half shadow and half tulips and flies, "come."

The figure floats till she reaches the man's lap. She sits on it.

A secret path suddenly opens in front of me.

I stop, "he" keeps walking.

When he comes back, he will tell me what he saw.

The big shadows of trees black and subtle like a vision that is already vanished.

Ten steps more, and it will be time to walk again down the same road, this time backwards.

Atreyu and Bastian

2009-11-25T04:48:00.000-08:00

On Arthur's face

2009-11-21T13:07:00.000-08:00

This photograph is full of geometric shapes. The body forms a triangle inscribed in an oval, and the face is another oval, it is an egg shadowed by its own roundness.

Everything in him tends towards an invisible point on his right, our left: his right shoulder, his head, his mouth, his gaze and his tie do.

He is wearing a dark suit and a lighter colored waistcoat with large buttons. We can see five of them. He is also wearing a tie that is not tied properly and makes him look like he was in a hurry when he got dressed.

His chin is round, scornful , strong. His mouth is a wound not yet healed; it is a razor too, the same one that produced the wound, in an act of self-mutilation. The cheeks are too childlike to share the same face with those eyes.

The nose is small, feminine, pretty. It traces a perfect line that goes from the the its tip to the left eye brow.

The eyes are tyrants. They bully the rest of the face. They are too much to be real.

They are large, heavy lidded blue eyes. The best thing about them is the shadow cast by the eyelids on the ice blue irises; it makes them look as if they had been painted by Edward Burne-Jones.

The eyes look up, towards the left, our right.

They gaze at a point that is beyond any wall, any tree or any mountain. It is beyond seconds, hours and centuries.

This gaze doesn't address us, that would be unbearable for us, but it leads us somewhere: it is a portal, an oracle.

These eyes are not to be spoken about and, even if I just have, everything I said is irrelevant.

His forehead is wide and white. His hair looks thick and shiny. I like his hair.

This is the face I'll never get tired of looking at.

This face is the perfect icon. It is a face that requires one to be religious, obsessive about it.

Either that, or nothing.

Je Est Un Autre, 2006

2009-11-21T04:05:00.000-08:00

GAWKER ARTISTS

2009-11-21T02:25:00.000-08:00

My work was selected for Gawker Artists.

There is still only one image on my profile, but I will upload more soon.

Go have a look by clicking here:

http://artists.gawker.com/5409645/ob-de-alessi

Illuminations

2009-11-16T15:23:00.000-08:00

Fear

2009-10-26T10:53:00.000-07:00

Trap

2009-10-26T10:47:00.000-07:00

Bohemians

2009-10-26T10:36:00.000-07:00

Five Types of Bohemians

Nouveau:- bohemians with money who attempt to join traditional bohemianism with contemporary culture
Gypsy:- drifters, neo-hippies, and others with nostalgia for previous, romanticized eras
Beat:- also drifters, but non-materialist and art-focused
Zen:- "post-beat," focus on spirituality rather than art
Dandy:- no money, but try to appear as if they have it by expensive or rare items - such as brands of alcohol

My imaginary Halloween costume as it appears today on DC's

2009-10-26T06:15:00.001-07:00

Today on DC's as part of the Halloween Self Portrait Day!