Yes I know how wanky the word 'homage' is. Just be thankful I didn't call it an absurdist homage, or else you'd have to punch me.

This project started out as a throwaway joke. Why not do a humorous take on Robert Mapplethorpe's infamous self portrait? I mean, how difficult could that be? Well, as it turned out, very difficult indeed.

This is the original photo -

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/mapplethorpe-self-portrait-ar00226

One of the things I find most interesting about it is how the imagery is disturbing only at face value. 'Upside-down' pentagrams, guns and leather are not offensive things in themselves; the power to disturb only comes by some very loosely defined associations that don't hold up under scrutiny. To me it's a playful image. It's camp. In spite of this, though, it's still ineffably disturbing.

I'll admit I've always had a fascination for occult imagery, despite being an agnostic and a non-believer in any of the mythical, anthropomorphic demons, devils, or whatever name your culture calls it by. Most of us associate the pentagram (or pentangle) with satanism, and it still retains that ability to make even rationalists feel a bit creeped out. Why? Well, because some English guy in the 1800's decided that this particular geometric shape was evil, and thus it gathered enough (ultimately superficial) cultural baggage to become an evil, scary thing. This formerly Medieval Christian symbol, with it's five points representing the holy wounds and ability to ward off demons and witches, had now become the exact opposite.

So how was I going to remake the original as closely as I could while making something new from it? I decided that I would camp it up just a bit further, with the aim of accentuating the superficial level of the shock inherent in the imagery. I think I rather failed on that account, but in doing so created something disturbing on different levels.

SPECIAL THANKS - https://www.weasyl.com/profile/sedric

BORING TECHNICAL DETAILS :

The least said about the sheep gun, the better. I don't want people messing around with potentially lethal bits of machinery and ruining it for the rest of us, as seems to be the case in England. I will say that the gun body is plastic, which I used an acrylic primer before spraying one side gloss black and the other pink. The cocking lever and trigger on the black side were painted pink, whilst the trigger on the pink side was sprayed gloss black. I sanded the metal stock, applied primer, then a layer of gold paint. Why? Because it amused me. Also the colour scheme makes double sure the device complies with UK law. In making the sheep mountable I had to cut a hole in it's fluffy arse and/or vagina and insert a ballast device with a metal tube which fits snugly on the launcher mount. This felt very wrong indeed, and I was terrified I might die before finishing it and had visions of my relatives finding it and wondering just what in the hell..

The sheep launcher is legal and fully operational, though firing it with that sheep on would destroy the sheep and almost certainly break my shoulder.

The pentagram itself was the most difficult part of the construction phase by far. I have no DIY skills at all and did badly at school. My first prototype pentagram was built from cardboard and involved no math whatsoever. In retrospect it looked crap, but at the time I was proud of being able to do even that. It turns out that pentagrams are incredibly difficult things to make accurately with any material, and if you get one angle, one length, one tiny thing wrong, then it throws everything else out of whack. This would become especially frustrating during the earlier attempts at a wooden prototype, lacking as I did any tools which would cut a perfect 18 degree angle at the end of a long block of wood. In spite of this, my first wooden prototype looked acceptable at first glance, but on closer inspection the proportions were off. It was also heavily bodged with filler to both hold the mismatched ends together and fill in the gaps.

After spending a long time learning some fairly basic math, I tried again. And again. Each time the result wasn't quite right. By now I was becoming frustrated and obsessed in equal amounts, so I spent most of my evenings for the next 3 months obsessing on the math and practicalities of making a large pentagram that was as proportionally correct as possible knowing only the dimensions of each of the 5 planks. Some time later, after accidentally re-discovering all the geometry I never understood at school, a plan emerged. I had the math, I had the logistics. I'd learned so much during the countless months of not-quite-right attempts that the construction itself only took about 3 evenings. It fitted together so well that I didn't even need to glue the planks in place - the geometry kept each join tight, centered with a free-standing dowel.

Bear in mind that this is a shortened version of events. I just decided that if I'm boring myself then I'm likely boring you, so apologies if you wanted to read details of the math, sanding, clamping etc. Also seek help - you are as mental as I must be.