Eros Douglass is a queer illustration, comics, and multimedia artist with an education from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. They find inspiration for their work in horror, graphic novels, Greek mythology, and Greek philosophy surrounding the seven different kinds of love, as well as in different types of self portraiture. They often work in deconstructing narrative tropes alongside deconstructing bodies, and they pull from their experience with their non-binary identity to craft their representation of forms in a unique kind of display.
Deification is a multimedia piece created by Eros Douglass. The piece is composed of various sizes of wood panels, ink, paint markers, brass framing nails, leather, fabric, gold leaf, various sizes of metal chain and spikes, and a deconstructed purse. When displayed all together, the piece is approximately 36” by 48”. The composition of the piece was planned digitally before being printed and sketched onto the wood panels to be outlined in ink with a brush for two center panels, and in paint markers for the outer five and the ribs at the very middle. The head, rib, and body panels were then painted fully in ink before gold leaf detailing was added, and the backgrounds of the rest were painted black with ink before beginning the process of nailing and gluing a variety of multimedia aspects to the different panels. The making of this piece took place over the course of two weeks.
This piece ties into the other works of Eros, many of which contain themes of self portraiture, medical anatomy, red and black color palettes, and themes inspired by deities and mythology. The depiction and decoration of the human body is one of the most consistent acts throughout the history of art. Flesh has always been carved, molded, and painted in places of high reverence, and Eros often pushes the display of the body further by pulling back the outermost layers and revering the inner anatomical structures just as much. This act alongside this form of surreal self-portraiture aims to display the figure as something unsettling, but just as decorated as bodies held in high regard consistently are. Working with the curve and drape of chain and fabric against the panels to highlight the form in an eyecatching manner parallels the practice of doing the same with clothing and jewelry, while leaving the body itself as primarily bare and accentuating features of the skin with gold leaf and placing a window over the ribs to view the structures within. Deconstruction and decoration with a forced reverence to the self through the process of making is their form of euphoric deification.
