Biografia
Richard Starbuck
Artist Statement
Starbuck has an interest in the subject of the sub-culture phenomena, of UFOs and Cattle Mutilation. This subject has many dimensions, as well as storytelling it also reflects a deeper meaning. Effecting one's reality and the implications of fear (of the unknown), love/sex (the longing for the other) and culture (the search for utopia/dystopia).
"the stories and eyewitness accounts fill me with such excitement that I just have to make work about it, they are so visual"
Starbuck's work often depicts isolated forms floating within a void.
"My work has always been like that, I suffered from social phobia in my young adult life. And still do from time to time, I'm sure this has affected my work. The loneliness and detachment to the outside world, my reality was different, I felt like an alien to society."
His work is often monochrome and dark, playing with our fears from well known horror and Sci-Fi films. But he also adds a hint of humour with his series of mutilated cattle (A Strange Harvest) that have been mysteriously dissected.
Many believe that extraterrestrials are to blame after sightings of strange lights in the sky, round burn marks in the ground around the corpse, and the clean cutting of flesh with no traces of blood. Cattle/horse mutilation is still going on today, the cause remains a mystery.
"I was particularly drawn to cattle mutilations because I found it so odd and disturbing. The documented images I found are horrific, the thought of something from someplace else doing this to cattle is both frightening and hilarious. Why travel thousands of lightyears through outer-space to core out a cows anus?"
Born 1981, London. Starbuck has exhibited in London, New York and Berlin and was shortlisted for the prestige UK art prize Threadneedle 2012.
