Knowledge From Samantha
Artist
Trenton Doyle Hancock
(American, born 1974)
Date2015
MediumAcrylic and mixed media on canvas
DimensionsOverall: 30 × 42 × 1 1/2 in. (76.2 × 106.7 × 3.8 cm)
ClassificationsPaintings
Credit LineMuseum Purchase, 2016. © Trenton Doyle Hancock. Courtesy James Cohan, New York. Photographer unknown.
Object numberSN11538
Prize commissioning prize given through The Hermitage Artist Retreat. In keeping with the mission of the prize, Trenton Doyle Hancock embarked on a new path in his practice: filmmaking. Using the considerable personal mythology that he has elaborated in his work over the past twenty years, Hancock began to explore the unique narrative possibilities the medium of film offers in elaborating the backstories of the Mounds and Vegans, the two main species populating his visual storytelling.
Knowledge From Samantha draws from Hancock's first foray into filmmaking and is directly related to a pivotal scene in the short film exhibited in What the Bringback Brought. The work is in Hancock's unmistakable style which draws from influences as varied as the comic books he collects as well as Henry Darger, Philip Guston and R. Crumb among others. In describing the work the James Cohan Gallery writes, "Knowledge From Samantha depicts a moment from Trenton's new film, What the Bringback Brought, when the Master Bringback meets a version of Trent who's been metabolized by Junior the Mound. Trent named the Master Bringback 'Samantha' after the young actress who portrayed this character in his film. He likes that she fits the profile of an innocent looking white girl, as all mounds have the soul of a little white girl deep inside them that ascends to heaven when they die. Trent also likes the association between this character's special breed of magic and that of Samantha from Bewitched."
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