James Labold
Nova Series: Franklin/ Eagle, 2025
Kiln cast glass and mixed media
7 x 4 x 2"

Artist Statement
The source material for this series is a group of found objects from a line of "Wild Country" cologne bottles sold and manufactured by Avon from the late 1960s through the mid 80s. Around 1976 Avon released a series of these depicting notable American presidents and founders. Merging some of the bodies of wild creatures of "Wild Country" with the bottle cap/busts of American deities like Abe Lincoln and Benjamin Franklin- the Nova series flips narrative from the source material, Avon bottles and creates new mythological figures I find these little bottle/sculptures, often poorly modeled and mass produced, as curious expressions of national pride and strange capitalist fetish objects... Mass produced patriotic imagery serves as a sort of propaganda, but maybe it is created with truly patriotic intentions, or maybe it is simply made to cash in on the patriotic fervor ofconsumers. I find the depictions of founding fathers in particular to be almost comically badly rendered (at times almost unrecognizable from the standard accepted depiction of George Washington for example) If an idealized image of a founder is indicative of respect and reverence for the subject, is making them into a cheap cologne bottle which barely looks like said "founding father" disrespectful or even heretical in the American Civil Religion?

Artist Bio
James Labold is an artist, educator, and fabricator, living in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.

His work draws on contemporary and historical imagery to create sculptures and installations reflecting on the bridges between past and present culture, inspired by the high culture of classical sculpture as much as the low culture of dollar store holiday decorations. Labold primarily works in glass, as well as resin and a variety of mixed media. His recent work has been exploring the use of digital fabrication technologies such as 3D printing with traditional analog processes such as lost wax glass casting. A love of history, mythology, and philosophy drives his curiosity into how we define our cultures via images, and how these images can be subverted.

jameslabold.com

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