Maisie Cousins' "Rubbish 2" bursts with vibrant colors, dominated by a striking blue plastic bag intertwined with decaying pink and yellow flowers. The composition features insects crawling amid the detritus, blending beauty and decay in a chaotic yet vivid arrangement. This photographic piece combines surreal realism with a glossy, saturated aesthetic, emphasizing tactile textures. Cousins seeks to explore the intersection of repulsion and allure, inviting viewers to discover beauty in the overlooked and discarded. ...
Maisie Cousins’ photographic practice marries beauty and disgust, interweaving food, trash, flesh, insects and decay into a kaleidoscopic world of colour. Seeing things through Cousins’ eyes takes us into a bright and saturated Wonderland of toys, icecream, lips, stomachs and tongues, smears of lipstick, jelly and juice. It’s our bins, sinks and childhood bedrooms visualised by Barbie, coloured in by toddlers. It’s glorious, nauseating, glossy and stunning. Cousins’ compositions take us into a fever dream journey through a visceral, grotesque circus show. Her practice encourages us to let go of our societally imposed niceties, to eat in the nude, to spill, to smear, to befriend the trails of ants on the plate of dessert from the other night that we left on our floor. Be dirty, be trashy, be happy and be beautiful, all at the same time. ...
