Drawing – Ben Morey

Anomalies

This on-going series of drawings explores the psychoanalytic principle of Association, which explains that we are all accumulations of our own experiences, specifically those during our developmental stages spanning from childhood into our mid 20s. Each drawing functions as a portrait of a person I knew during this psychologically integral time and depicts assemblages of objects (as I currently remember them), each of which embodies a specific memory related to the subject. The therapeutic process of airing these memories by visually cataloguing them allows me to lay them out to be dissected and analyzed in order to gain a new perspective of how my relationship with each person may have affected my psychological development. By semi-anthropomorphizing these objects a silent dialogue is created throughout each composition about what can be revealed, in retrospect, about the cognitive architecture of each person as they currently exist in my memory bank.

Mr. Silly’s Wild Ride

2017 Ink on paper

The Witch Behind the Curtain

2017 Ink on paper

D.N.R.

2016 Ink on paper

Teacher’s Pets

2016 Ink on paper

Alexandra, In Absentia

2016 Ink on paper

Paging Dr. Feelgood!

2016 Ink on paper

Collette’s Tabernacle of Debauchery

2016 Ink on paper

Reform School Girl Retrospective

2016 Ink on paper

Pleather Choad

2016 Ink on paper

Amelia Jane, In Effigy

2016 Ink on paper

Vega’s StarSearch

2015 Ink on paper

Porwall’s Prismatic Penetralia

2015 Ink on paper

$5,000 Pyramid (Scheme)

2015 Ink on paper

Good Clean Fun

2015 Ink on paper

Fumigation 1

2015 Ink on paper

Sock Doctor Speaks

2011 Ink and oil on paper

Celebrating 21 Years of Public Broadcasting!

2010 Ink, oil, collage on paper

Free Play

2012 18″ x 12″ Ink on board

“Free Play” is the presentation of toys and objects that relate to childhood experiences juxtaposed with those that incapsulate and represent those of my daily adult life. The result is simultaneously autobiographical and impersonal as each object is disconnected from the memory it evokes.

Prize Puzzle (Bonus Round)

2011 6.5″ x 9″ Ink on board

A further exploration of the game show set at a stage for depictions of issues (political, social and personal) that are absurd in their complexity and their inability to be solved. Surrogates for these issues intertwine and overpopulate the space to overwhelm the viewer as they overwhelm me.

Everything Must Go!

2010 18″ x 12″ Ink on board