Artist Erika Simmons is a Georgia-based artist who, among other things, unspools the magnetic tape inside cassettes and turns them into portraits of musicians. I was struck by the Clash one, above, but she’s also got fantastic ones of Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix and Michael Jackson.
One of her most recent pieces is a portrait of The Dude made out of a Big Lebowski VHS tape.
I read a cool interview with her at Go Media Zine, where she explains a little about how she creates this art (draw the portrait in glue, cut the tape as little as possible) as well as the inspiration:
The cassette tape series came out of a desire to explore a theme of recursion… tangled hierarchy. Where is the music? On the cassette tape? In the head of the musician portrayed? Where does one begin and the other end? But you don’t have to look at it in that way to enjoy it. I tried to make something fun and easy-to-understand, but with deeper things to think about, if you so choose.
She’s got a website of her own, but it links to her Flickr page for her full portfolio. There’s also an online store, if you’re interested in owning an original (MJ will set you back $2,000 but she doesn’t do prints, so this is one of a kind).
Grant Hamilton
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