The DnA FACTORY, MRSS – AKA Dallas and Angel

S.E.London.Blog

Feb 25

This month I got to speak to two lovely humans and long-running artist collaborators, DnAFACTORY MRSS, Dallas, and Angel.

"LOVE, SEX, OBSESSION, DEATH & ALL THE DIRT AND POETRY BETWEEN."

Dallas and Angel, AKA DnA FACTORY MRSS*, met at Goldsmith's college as students and have been artistic and life collaborators since 1990.

Their style is best described as 'post-punk-baroque mixed with a large dollop of surrealism, a touch of pop and a scoop of expressionism, visceral for sure and very unapologetic.'

I spent a pretty chilly Saturday afternoon with the guys in their studio space in Herne Hill, where they've been for 21 years. We chatted about all things sculpture, painting, corporatocracy, relationships, S&M, domesticity, style, process, poetry, disciplines, life, spanky bot-bots, and plans for the future.

Listen to the interview, linked below

Listen to my interview with Dallas and Angel below

Click here to listen to an audio clip.

The Work

'OUR STYLE IS BEST DESCRIBED AS POST-PUNK-BAROQUE MIXED WITH A LARGE DOLLOP OF SURREALISM, A TOUCH OF POP AND A SCOOP OF EXPRESSIONISM, VISCERAL FOR SURE AND VERY UNAPOLOGETIC.'

DnA FACTORY

It's tough to bring their wonderfully creative and thought-provoking work to life in a few short words. More so, the intention behind the pieces, resistance, and critique - communicated creatively - to the corporate machines.

Their work involves an exploration of the world; it has subliminal and obvious political messages exploring and documenting the reactions and responses to the world in which we live.

The work has many recurring themes, from the 'politics of the body, genders, and sexuality to the broader social and political implications and implementations that shape our world.

Dallas said: "For several years, we have been creating works dealing with consumerism and the capitalist model, feeding our use of reclaimed or recycled objects and materials; we have a love of transmuting a discarded item into something 'other,' unexpected or unrecognisable in terms of its previous incarnation. We are passionate about material experimentation, discovering limits, and moving beyond those limitations."

View their portfolios and collections of work here and explore pieces that were commissioned to be out in the public domain; The Cotswold Sculpture Park, London Festival of Architecture, Hope Springs, Green Voices Hoxton Arches, The Punk Army, Dot to Dot Borough Market, 10 x 10 The Shard and lots more (Those artworks listed are pictured below.)

LITTLE LOLITA [Papa's Little Princess, Papa's Little Saviour]

'So how goes our tale of modern morality,
so how fares our sweet maid, our hero and anti-hero,
as the do-er was done to, so the do-er has done,
we can make no excuses or judgement
for here she is all of us, and yet none.'

(Excerpt from the original text ' 'Lolita and The Undying Worm/The China In Your Hand' Dallas and Angel.

The original collage of Little Lolita is part of a series of cut-and-paste works, portraits influenced by and sometimes directly resembling some of their friends and acquaintances. The compilations are scaled to A3 and A4 [in the original state] and were produced to be the basis of a population of characters in an illustrated fable, written by Dallas & Angel, provisionally titled 'Lolita and The Undying Worm/The China In Your Hand.'

The tale, taken from life experiences combined with allegory and invention, follows the rags to riches to rags adventure of the main character, Little Lolita. This character is neither male nor female and changes her physical state throughout the story but is always identifiable through wearing a china shoe on either one or occasionally both feet; the fragile nature, the actual properties of wearing a porcelain shoe emphasising the fragility of the human condition.

Alongside the collage, they also produced a series of sculptures that featured versions of some of the characters portrayed in paper form. All the three-dimensional work from this series conforms to a highly specialised faux-porcelain finish, specifically and carefully developed by DnA FACTORY.

Of the smaller collages, three were chosen, in 2006/7, to be photographically printed at a near life-size scale and re-collaged onto highly painted background boards for exhibition, creating a triptych of strikingly dark, violent, Neo-Gothic pieces; 'Little Lolita', 'PornKlown' and the iconic 'This Smokin'Gun'.

The original series began around 1997/8 and remains ongoing.

Follow DnAFACTORY on Instagram, Facebook and be sure to browse their website.

Dallas and Angel are open to commissions for private and public larger scale commissions.

*MRSS - Members of the Royal Society of Sculptures

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