Graham Hudson | Monsters

M O N S T E R S

Monster: Noun, Adverb and adjective

Origin: Circa 1375. A mythical creature which is part animal and part human, or combines elements of two or more animal forms, and is frequently of great size and ferocious appearance. Later, more generally: any imaginary creature that is large, ugly, and frightening. The centaur, sphinx, and minotaur are examples of 'monsters' encountered by various mythical heroes; the griffin, wyvern, etc., are later heraldic forms.

Oxford English Dictionary

Examples:

1567
Thocht Hercules, for Exionie, A mychtie monster did subdew, Zit endit he in miserie.
Compendious Book of Godly Songs (1897) 214

1616
This is some Monster of the Isle, with foure legs.
W. Shakespeare, Tempest (1623)  ii. ii. 65

1762
Those Grotesque monsters..with which the spouts..of ancient buildings are decorated.
H. Walpole, Vertue's Anecdotes of Painting  vol. I. v. 111

Image:

Graham Hudson is an artist working with ideas relating to fitness, wellness culture and the body as a psychological, cultural and physical subject.

Hudson often takes the useless item, the appropriated image, and the found object and turns what have been formally classified as the neglected and unwanted into lighted, sculptural monuments. Inspired by the readymades of  the nineteenth century new british art movement, the evolution of appropriation art, and pop art, Hudson works across video, text, installation, and sculpture to comment on the use and function of art in the modern world, reflecting on the  intellectual and embodied theories of the physical culture movement.

At the RCA, Graham Hudson is teaches in the Sculpture Program and the Health and Care research hub. Project partners have included The Henry Moore Foundation, Leeds, Film and Video Umbrella, London, Museo d'Arte Contemporanea di Roma, and The Van Abbe Museum, Eindhoven. Graham is a regular collaborator with the Japanese fashion house Comme des Garçons, creating work in New York, Tokyo, Beijing, Paris and London.