The Last Bastion of Laziness
2021
Metro Arts
Photo: Charlie Hillhouse
The Last Bastion of Laziness is comprised of a series of assemblages, each including a different vintage Garfield the Cat plush toy, fitted with infant Nike trainers of various design lines—Air Jordan, Air Max, Free Runner among others—that are staged in different poses atop cat scratcher ‘trees’. Playing on the infamous laziness of the cartoon icon as well as the athletic, aspirational pretences of megabrand Nike, the works see Garfield at an impasse; both lazing and competing, winding down and gearing up, seemingly lethargic and ever-ready. These assemblages reveal our ambivalent relationship to work and leisure by exploring the aesthetics of anti-work office culture, and the ‘rise and grind’ ethos of self-optimisation. Through these works Attwood contends that even the once iconically lazy must today negotiate the productivity imperative.
Francis Russell, Plush Assemblage
David Attwood, Garfield's Productivity
I WILL RISE AND I WILL SHINE
2021
Vintage Garfield plush toys, infant Nike trainers, cat scratcher
72 x 50 x 200 cm
GETTING THINGS DONE
2021
Vintage Garfield plush toys, infant Nike trainers, cat scratcher
100 x 70 x 205 cm
THANK GOD IT’S MONDAY
2021
Vintage Garfield plush toy, infant Nike trainers, cat scratcher
60 x 60 x 154 cm
THE PROBLEM WITH WORK
2021
Vintage Garfield plush toys, infant Nike trainers, cat scratcher
90 x 75 x 164 cm
THERE ARE NO PROBLEMS, ONLY PROJECTS
2021
Vintage Garfield plush toys, infant Nike trainers, cat scratcher
51 x 51 x 150 cm
Ofluxo