Purveyor of his own-brand evil, Meese’s performances, paintings and sculptures function as operatic stages for supernal ritual: litanies of cultural resurrections, baptisms, purges, and cleansings mediated by none other than the high priest himself. Using self-portraiture as a shamanistic device, Meese’s infamous ‘wild man’ image – quasi crazed prophet, death metal pontiff, primordial fiend – channels all manner of execration and taboo for his own irreverent cultish mythology. Drawing equally from historical anathema and its lingering ideologies and the lowly orders of B-movie kitsch, professional wrestling, and comic book archetypes, Meese is author, auspex and deity of his own divinely sordid faction exalting contemporary anxiety.
Johnny (Pupsie) in seinen Bergen (Hot Fondue) features a selection of eight paintings made during Meese’s recent residency at Patricia Low’s La Maison Jaune in Gstaad, marking a unique chapter in his bestial lore. Performative to the core, the paintings’ fictional narrative plays out under the influence the artist’s real holiday surrounds, proffering a surreal subplot: demonic icon in the alpine playground of the ultra posh.
