EYE OF NEWT

What is Eye of Newt?

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The eye motif first appeared in digital renders on Bruce Asbestos’s instagram (@BruceAsbestos). These experimental renders depict the motif in a variety of media and collections, in imagined exhibition spaces. The floating work draws on his experience of visiting the pond in the local park, looking at the frogspawn and wondering about the potential of frogspawn as a symbol for collectivity, community or possibility, all of which are desperately needed in these strange times.

Asbestos also wanted a very British symbol of hope: “The work references the ‘Eye of Newt’, an ingredient used by the witches in Shakespeare’s Macbeth, I was thinking of a symbol that was quintessentially British and perhaps wondering whether artists are a sort of cultural witch, who might be able to produce alternative ideas for our post-covid problems, this watching-eye artwork is our first ingredient.”

The eye of newt project has expanded to include digital animations, large inflatables, inflatable mini sculptures, and it features in S/S 2021,  and in OK! CHERUB!