Richard Hawkins

2013

Book, 17.5 x 11.5 cm, 120 p., language : English, publisher : Les presses du réel.
Materials: Ink, paper

Collection: Collection M HKA, Antwerp (Inv. no. B 2026/124).

Literary synopsis

Fragile Flowers is Richard Hawkins’ first book of fiction. It is haunted by a voyeuristic, desiring hunter, its narratives of homosexual indulgence and vulgar pleasure at once delightful and decadent. Fragile Flowers consists of a series of interconnected stories. The next book (it is intended to be two or more volumes) will make it clear that a kind of time travel is taking place. Aubrey is the young Ricky/Richard and in the future he is split into two halves: the naive but questing Aubrey and the verbose Dr. Tobias. There is always a permissive over-narrator like MomBrooks who serves as a kind of inspirational accelerator.

Relation of the novel to the artist’s practice

There is no direct relation between Fragile Flowers and the rest of Richard Hawkins’ visual production, except perhaps the Lotus Island/Frogtown stories, which are some stirred-up version of his Thai sextourism paintings (with huge crowds and an explicitness that are not present in the paintings).

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