Coco Young
Bio: Coco Young (b. 1989) is a French-American artist from NYC and Marseille.
Thesis Exhibition
Artist Statement: When I was in first grade I visited Marie Madelene’s grotto in the SainteBaume Mountain with my school. I went back there last summer with my mother. We got into an argument at the bottom of the mountain and proceeded to climb to the top without speaking. I remember the wet stalactites slowly dripping onto the floor of the cave. There is only one dry stone in there, the one that Marie Madeleine would sleep on. She allegedly lived in this grotto for the last thirty years of her life.
Like many New Yorkers I take the subway everyday. It’s a substantial part of my life, the space inbetween where I was and where I’m going. The NYC subway is a gentle giant that is neglected and falling apart. The other day a mysterious drop fell on my head from the ceiling of the 14th street and 6th avenue station. If you look up in many subway stations, you can see pollution stalactites that seem to be simultaneously expanding and melting over time.
I have some recollections of being breastfed: the warmth, the metallic taste (I think I was breastfed until pretty late). I learned about Remus and Romulus in elementary school. In Marseille they were a big deal because the city once belonged to the Roman Empire. They were kept alive by a SheWolf who breastfed them. At the time I didn’t understand the dif ference between myths and history and actually believed that Remus and Romulus survived because of the wolf’s milk. It is a fact, however, that Remus and Romulus went on to birth western civilization that is now, as we know, falling into ruins.