Freakshow


On display at DJCAD Degree Show 2024. All photographs by Aoife Cawley.
Freakshow - Statement
R.L. Taylor is an artist from Edinburgh who now predominantly works in painting and installation.
His practice is informed by an interest in Christianity, conspiracy, mythological beings, limitations to escapism and performance of ritual as a means of overcoming barriers of shame in the currency of guilt.
This body of work encompasses portraiture of emotional toil, often combining varying life forms in one figure. Collectively, these works discuss the crossover and amalgamation with other beings as a response to miscommunication and embarrassment, aiming to create fictional worlds in which these subjects could possibly exist. Through these works, which are displayed over two triptychs, religious iconography is plainly communicated or inverted in cycles, displayed alongside various portals, offering an escape or posing a barrier to the subjects.
Freakshow gives the viewer a close-up of our shared lifespan, from mystifying birth to glorious and cathartic funeral. It depicts varying symbiotic relationships between the idol and the freak, finding Christian morality in a contemporary setting, where divine intervention becomes absurdist happenstance. Over forming this project, the artist has grown closer to the narrative, departing from the often-hedonistic mindset that spurred his practice into fruition.
Freakshow – List of Works
What If It Comes Out Goat?
100 x 80 cm – oil on canvas – 2024
1/6 - A mystifying and explosive birth kicks off our shared lifespan in a South American convent many years ago, where a wonderful ritual takes quite the turn. Welcome to the Freakshow.
Blessed Cure in the Saviour on Spilled Blood
140 x 120 cm – oil on board – 2024
2/6 - Set inside St Petersburg's most famous Orthodox church, the figures are at varying stages of growth, nurtured and limited, for the time being they resemble cryogenic kebabs.
An Empty Gesture of Freedom
100 x 80 cm – oil on canvas – 2023
3/6 - In our adolescence, the freak is no longer sheltered, and is now on a pilgrimage of brutal self-discovery.
A Cacophony (Reformed)
100 x 80 cm – oil on canvas – 2024
4/6 - A pivotal moment in our lifespan, St Paul's Cathedral in London sees the freak struggling to choose between two portals. One is small, almost too safe compared to the other, where a massive gap may show us troubling events throughout the location's history.
Exactly Seven Hills and One Big Family
140 x 120 cm – oil on board – 2024
5/6 - Rome hosts the happy couple, a beautiful location for a beautiful day.
You Can Hear the Bass on My Casket from Down the Block; Blessed Are They That Mourn, But They Shall Be Taken Out If They Are in The Front Row
100 x 80 cm – oil on canvas – 2024
6/6 - The Freakshow is laid to rest with one last cathartic, explosive ritual.
Bless This Meat
Selected works from project

Edging On Penance
12 x 9.5 inches - oil on canvas
April 2023

Ways I'll Probably Die
24 x 36 inches - acrylic on canvas
March 2023

She Goes To A Different School
21 x 21 inches - oil on board
February 2023

Group Conversion Therapy
16.5 x 13 inches - oil on board
February 2023

Make Me
8 x 8 inches - oil on canvas
February 2023

My Rational Fear of Horses
17 x 12 inches - oil and acrylic (texture) on canvas
January 2023
New Type of Guy Alert
A series of portraits of fictional cult leaders and members

Darn Tootn'
12 x 12 inches - acrylic on canvas
September 2022

Cartel Integration Agency (Missionary Position)
14 x 14 inches - acrylic and charcoal on canvas
October 2022

Return to the Blades
12 x 12 inches - acrylic on canvas
October 2022

The Bland Wizard of the Why Why Why
12 x 12 inches - acrylic on canvas
October 2022

Led by a Hair
12 x 8 inches - oil on canvas
October 2022

Slippery Velvet
12 x 12 inches - acrylic, pencil and oil pastel on canvas
November 2022

Most Likely to Commit Genocide
12 x 12 inches - acrylic and charcoal on canvas
November 2022

Mummy's Special Boy
12 x 12 inches - oil, acrylic and graphite on canvas
December 2022

Instruments from the 9th Dimension
12 x 12 - acrylic, charcoal and pastel on canvas
December 2022
Mukbang
In order of appearance: Rowan Roscher, Lucia Rice, Darcy Topen, RL Taylor.
Written, performed and filmed by cast. Edited by RL Taylor.
March 2022.








Sinkhole Beach
16 x 33 x 26 inches
Walls - acrylic, spray paint, cling film, steel, plaster, wire, latex
Centre piece
- acrylic, spray paint, bubble wrap, iron, plaster, expanding foam wire
Sound element is a collaboration with Tilda Watson from DJCAD 4th Year Fine Art, available here
April 2022



Lived experience is very important to me, a Greek giant with 100 eyes
11.5 x 8 x 1.5 inches - indian ink on synthetic reelskin, brass, aluminium, string, plaster - stick & poke






Streamer
10 x 11 x 4.5 inches - acrylic, spray paint, steel, zinc
March 2022





Crawler
14 x 20 x 5 inches - acrylic, spray paint, iron, steel, aluminium
March 2022




Pluck
24 x 26 x 11 inches - bubble wrap, spray paint, translucent varnish spray, glue stick, chicken wire, string
February 2022




Pan
February 2022







Her Gravitational Pull, Act 2
16 x 20 x 16.5 inches - copper, wire, plaster, latex, foil, Modroc, acrylic, spray paint
december 2021





Canyon
25.8 x 17.2 inches - acrylic and spray paint on bubble wrap
november 2021




Her Gravitational Pull, Act 1
8.5 x 11.5 x 7 inches - wire, plaster, plastic, latex, foil, masking tape, bubble wrap, spray paint
november 2021


The Crown Tenor of New Jersey
12.5 x 7.5 inches - latex, acrylic, wire
november 2021




Collector
5 x 4 x 3.7 inches - latex, acrylic, steel nails
november 2021




Petal
24 x 17 inches - acrylic, spray paint,
latex, Styrofoam on aluminium foil
october 2021
Horizontality is a satirical sales pitch to invest in a portable island that will treat those working in hospitality while suffering from addiction and/or substance abuse issues to a sober retreat. It is influenced by the artist's experience of working in the industry and by the health sector-particularly rehabilitation clinics and self-help trends-and the advancements made by individuals in attempting to change the perception of addiction and recovery in the midst of a drug deaths crisis. Treatment should be a wide-spanning public health service as opposed to an industry that best serves the privileged.
Shown at Leith School of Art End of Year Exhibition 2020/21.







Sculpture project - November 2020
The aim of this project was to make abstract pieces out of two materials assigned to us, mine were cardboard and tree bark - with the addition of plaster and latex. For this project, our lecturers wanted us to come into each day with an open mind without thinking of an end product. Many of the shapes I made subconsciously reminded me of domesticity, particularly protectiveness and food; I looked to distort the shapes and find something completely new. My favourite piece of the whole project was the green sandpaper which turned mainly pink after I used it to clean plaster moulds, definitely a happy accident.



contrastbalance
A
music based publication created solo over 2017 and 2018 while at Edinburgh
College. I wrote, designed, laid out and released myself. The second edition
was shortlisted for the Stack Student Magazine of the Year Award 2018.
Alongside covering parts of the music industry, I was able to show some of my
artwork. I feel this was a huge personal development, throughout each process
and the step from the first edition up to the second, as a whole.
