Ecstasy and art are not synonymous with one another, or even in the same wavelength, not unless you are on ecstasy and making art, or you’re on ecstasy and you are the art, either way, you don’t expect to walk in a gallery and set your eyes on huge MDMA pills lined across the wall, not unless your name is Dean Zeus Colman, or better known as ‘Zeus‘. The artist, who has been graffiti stamping streets since the ripe age of 14, has taken on the stigma of drugs and art in the same breathe. Ever since Warhol we have experienced mainstream companies and logos in pop-art and beyond – Zeus set out to take it to a new level.
Ecstasy tablets and MDMA is our generations answer to our parents acid trips, shroom dreams, and everything in between. They are, for lack of a better phrase, the only ‘postmodern drug‘, and in his new series Zeus explores the many faces of ecstasy and it’s many logos that have become enshrined in drug lore among the masses. One logo can mean the absolute time of your life and ride on the most fuzzy carpet of eternity or it can mean you are trapped in an ambulance going 85 down the interstate of hell because your ass is overdosing – and those experiences are all documented and seared into memory by the simple little logos encased on each pill, their signatures and stamps to the world of either pleasure or pain.
In Zeus’ sculptured series in sleek minimalist form, he takes corporate giants and immortalizes them among the masses bringing attention to the phenomenon of logo enhanced drugs. It makes sense, too. You aren’t going to remember some elaborate little image you thought was badass before the drugs kicked in and after a night of dancing all over the place on Molly, but you’ll probably remember the golden arches, Mario Brothers, the Superman logo or the Playboy bunny. That Superman was the best, gotta get more of that, right? See how that works?
Combining his urban artistic sensibilities with his formal training from Chelsea College of Art, Zeus has produced these plaster sculptures modeled after actual ecstasy pills in classic Andy Warhol fashion. The cheeky chic series is called, “Love is a Drug” and you should definitely buy us the WuTang one!
See more of ZEUS’ work here: WEBSITE / FACEBOOK / TWITTER
(via The Creators Project)
