In Peter Frederiksen’s work Nostalgia is being weaponized. The concept of the past as a "better time" is used as an aggressor and pushed out in fear of social progress. The artist uses nostalgic imagery popularized in the "Golden Age" of cartoons to show violence in art, as well as art as violence: Wile E. Coyote painting a tunnel on the side of a wall meant to capture and kill the Road Runner; a piano dangling from a fraying rope waiting to fall on an unsuspecting victim; a note in a song rigged to explode when played correctly. Drawing a parallel between these violent images and the longed-for era in which they were created, these threats of danger are rendered in soft materials emphasize their ridiculous nature. 

Peter Frederiksen lives and works in Chicago. The majority of his pieces are freemotion machine embroideries inspired by post-war Warner Brothers cartoons. Utilizing familiar imagery, the work examines fear, panic, toxic masculinity, anxiety, anticipation, and humor all through the lens of the shared visual language of Looney Tunes cartoons. Frederiksen has been exhibited most recently in New York, London, Berlin, and Milan.

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From the studio with Peter Frederiksen