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|| ARTWORK || The Ozymandias Parade

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Installation view of “The Red Bean Grows in the South”, Faurschou Foundation, New York, 2019,The Ozymandias Parade, Edward and Nancy Reddin Kienholz, 1985, Mixed media tableau, 152x349x180 in Photo by Tom Powel © Faurschou Foundation

The title of the large-scale installation The Ozymandias Parade, is based on the so-called ‘Ozymandias poems’, published in 1818 by poets Percy Bysshe Shelley and Horace Smith. A central theme of the Ozymandias poems is the inevitable decline of rulers, due to hubris. It is most likely that the poets were referring to the Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses II, whose Greek name is known as Ozymandias. Percy Blythe Shelley’s Ozymandias poem, in particular, later inspired numerous artworks.

In 1985, Edward and Nancy Reddin Kienholz reimagined the despotic ruler as a corrupt modern-day dictator commanding an abject ship of fools. Working with objects that the couple had collected in flea markets of Berlin, Amsterdam, and Paris, they created a vast, satirical tableaux, showing a ‘ruler’, mounted on a horse upside down.

Installation view of “The Red Bean Grows in the South”, Faurschou Foundation, New York, 2019,The Ozymandias Parade (detail), Edward and Nancy Reddin Kienholz 1985, Mixed media tableau, 152x349x180 in Photo by Tom Powel © Faurschou Foundation

At the same time, the figure of a general can be seen riding an overburdened taxpayer, with an army of tin soldiers at his feet. The word ‘No’ on his head is the result of a poll conducted in each place that the installation is shown, The question “Are you satisfied with your government?”. Apart from this highly symbolic imagery, a number of other details can be found amongst the chaotic parade of rulers and fools.

About Artist

Edward Kienholz (1927-1994) was born in Fairfield, Washington. He was a self-taught artist and acquired many impressions, insights, and manual skills that would later be decisive for his artistic work. In 1954, Kienholz became involved in the avant-garde art scene and produced his first wooden reliefs, assemblages, and later: three-dimensional ‘tableaux’, large-scale installations for which he used found objects.

Nancy Reddin Kienholz (1943-2019) was a self-taught photographer and mixed media artist, who began her artistic partnership with her husband, Edward Kienholz, in 1972. The couple became widely recognized for their assemblage works and large-scale tableaux.

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