My interpretation of King Kong, the 8th wonder of the world which is inspired by the original 1930s black and white movie. I remember watching the film as a kid and even though the effects are ludicrously bad when you watch it back now it was the whole concept of this huge beast that was kept behind those huge wooden gates, the beating of the drums when a sacrificial offering was given and that moment when you saw him, it is a great film and probably more intense than some of the later versions.
This piece could quite easily have been a jungle based scene piece but I wanted to tackle it in the way that I did with ‘BALBOA’ and focus on the New York city element to truly showcase KONG unleashed on the city through no fault of his own, to show the scale of him and the carnage that followed as a result of mans’ intervention driven by greed.
The piece is inspired by the classic original movie artwork that shows a hugely oversized beast striding forward over the city towards the Empire State building with Ann Darrow in Kongs’ grip. If you look at the face of Kong back then it was kind of odd looking, I have made changes so it is more dramatic and intense and ultimately more intimidating without being too much, I guess in line with how modern film re-makes tend to do with the ‘monster’.
I have used the same smoke and stars detailing that is used in ‘BALBOA’ whilst introducing a looser, more blurred style in places to represent the movement so it isn’t static - for example the woman would have been flailing around not statuesque so the detailing here is quite abstract in places. The cityscape is really gritty and weathered with abstract markings and textures to reflect the period at the time and to create an aged quality as if you are looking at something that was created back then.
What I also like is that it fits nicely within the growing body of work that embraces the ’no such thing as monsters’ concept whilst also having complementing qualities to ‘BALBOA’ without just becoming a re-hash of that particular piece.