Grunge and Halcion

Artist Statement

I began working with oil stick and oil pastel in 1993 while preparing for Inversions, a group exhibition at the Piano Factory in Boston featuring work by women artists, including Dakota Martin (formerly Deborah Martin), Nicola Sinclair, Sarah Doherty and Ave Siecinski and myself. My contributions included oil stick and collage and assemblage pieces that challenged cultural norms at a time when artists faced increasing censorship. U.S. Senator Jesse Helms was targeting the NEA, and Robert Mapplethorpe’s The Perfect Moment was being banned in cities across the country under pressure from the Far-right. I saw that show at the old ICA on Boylston Street, hidden behind a black velvet curtain. Around the same time, I encountered the work of Sadie Benning—both experiences deeply influenced my practice at Mass Art.

I was fortunate to study under video installation artist Tony Oursler at Mass Art, whose mentorship encouraged boundary-pushing experimentation and freedom to create without restrictions.

During this period, I created works like Original Sin ( the rabid hypocrisy of Jesse Helms), a collage assemblage piece musing about Senator Helms attacks on gay artists using his power under the auspices of religion and how his rage and contempt for gay people contrasted greatly with the compassionate and loving nature of Jesus.

I built Mary Janes, a pair of black velvet little girls shoes set upon nail spikes, Belly of the Beast and Mighty Mouse collage pieces among others which were stolen from Public Storage while I was in California. I maintain the slides as provenance.

In 1994, my younger brother Eric died by suicide after a tragic reaction to the black box insomnia medication Halcion, which at that time was banned in many other countries due it’s dangerous side effects—but not by the FDA in the US. He just turned 27. His death, which occurred around the same time as Kurt Cobain’s, profoundly impacted my work and life.

I created a series of oil pastel pieces in response to his loss, including The Dart Throwers, The Mourners, The Hanging Tree, Arms stretched across the desert and The Sadistiks, while living in San Francisco.

Artists Dr. Seuss (Theodor Geisel) and Tim Burton were heavy influences in this work. Most of these oil pastel drawing pieces were later destroyed —burned in 2002 while I was living in Boston’s South End because they were damaged during shipping.

Other large scale works on paper from that era, including Trix Bunny, The Lovers, The OBGYN, Pervert, were taken from my studio at 46 Waltham Street in 1997 when I sublet my space.

Today, only The Mourners and Angel Goes West remain in my personal collection, while Suburban Gothic is in the collection of someone who bought it from the Open Studios back in 1997. Super hero, Super Model, Super Freak is in a private collection.

Thankfully, I preserved slides of much of the stolen work and my earlier film and video work.

-Macaulay Woods, May 2025