Association of Erotic Artists

Maverick, experimental sculptor Jamie McCartney has produced a sculpture to be auctioned for Macmillan Cancer Support, which is developing ‘skin cancer’ whilst on view in the window at Peter Jones, London. Alongside a skull by Damien Hirst and a decapitated cherubic head by Nicola Hicks, the sculpture could not be in better company.

Poignantly entitled “Wake Up (and smell the coffee)”, the experimental artist’s work is a lifesize figure of a beautiful woman, reclining on her side. Her richly tanned body basks in the sunshine in the South West facing window, seemingly oblivious to the damage being done to her skin. The sunlight is causing the surface of the sculpture to bubble and blister in a chilling parallel of the effect the sun can have on our bodies.

Sponsored by De’Longhi, leaders in premium coffee machines, the Macmillan De’Longhi Coffee Art Auction, has attracted donations by Britain’s leading artists. Together with Hirst and Hicks are works by Tracey Emin, Lord Richard Rogers, Sir Peter Blake, Gavin Turk and many others. These are now on view in the windows at Peter Jones on the Kings Road and John Lewis on Oxford Street. The auction, to be held on November 8th at the Arts Club in Mayfair, will raise thousands of pounds for the cancer charity.

Jamie has created this unique piece especially for the Macmillan auction, cast directly from a woman’s body in coffee beans and resin. Sensual, compelling and now excruciatingly poignant, it is typical of this artist whose star is rapidly rising.

An art critic in his own right, with his moniker of ‘Critical I’, Jamie also ruthlessly applies the same scrutiny to his own works. “When I first saw the effect the sun was having on the sculpture I was horrified.” Jamie explains, “having worked hard to create this piece for the charity I worried that the blemishes would deter collectors and hence raise less money;” However Jamie quickly realized the power this ‘happy accident’ could have. “What’s happening to her is almost biblical, like the sculptures of Jesus which bleed or the Madonnas, which weep, she has an important message for all of us.”

Crowds of passers-by are gathering to see this poignant piece, ominously displayed below a Hirst skull, before it is snapped up by a private collector at the auction on Thursday, 8th November. It may be viewed until this Friday in the window at Peter Jones and next week in the pre auction viewing at the Arts Club in Mayfair.