“It’s usually disgusting when your pubic hair gets stuck to the soap,” says artist Tom Friedman, but once after bathing he “found it beautiful–the curves on the white background of the soap.” This experience led to an artwork, soon to be exhibited at the Art Institute, in which the artist’s pubic hair is arranged in a spiral on a bar of soap.
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Friedman, who’s 30, says critics have focused mainly on the repetitive and obsessive nature of his art. Most of his pieces use everyday materials in surprising ways–there’s a long coiled pencil shaving and a self-portrait carved from an aspirin–but his deeper concerns are more fundamental: he wants to examine the ways in which we experience objects in the world.
An interest in our culture’s information overload–and in the obfuscating effects of media sensationalism–is reflected in a piece that began with a large self-portrait. “I started drawing arrows on it pointing to various parts of myself on the photo. They gradually accumulated to the point where they obliterated my body; all you see is this black figure that looks like it’s electrically charged. It has to do with intensely scrutinizing something almost to the point where the object disappears.”
