Rolling Stone is reporting that Cynthia Albritton, also known as the legendary Cynthia Plaster Caster - the alias that sprung from her plaster casts of famous musician and artists’ body parts, mainly erect penises and women’s breasts - has died after a long illness on Thursday, friends close to the artist confirmed. She was 74.
What began as a college art project that fulfilled her “groupie” love for music became a decades-long work. Albritton’s first famous cast was Jimi Hendrix. She went on to document a range of musicians from different genres and eras, including Dennis Thompson and Wayne Kramer of MC5, Pete Shelley of the Buzzcocks, Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedys, as well the breasts of Laetitia Sadier of Stereolab, Peaches, and Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Her work spanned artists in other realms, including film.
For those that knew Albritton, she was viewed both a strong conceptual artist and also a really big music fan. If you were lucky enough to meet her out and about, typically at a music venue in Chicago, she simply introduced herself as Cynthia, called everyone “doll,” and was as sweet as she was funny.
When it came to her art, Albritton’s friend and former manager Mitch Marlow says she wanted to keep things pure and true and was concerned about “never selling out” even when she was late on rent. “She would never cast somebody for commission just because they wanted it,” he tells Rolling Stone. “She wouldn’t even sell to people that she didn’t like, even if she needed the money.”
Read the full story at Rolling Stone.
On Jimi Hendrix being her most infamous cast and one of her first, done in February 1968, Cynthia told Rock Scene Magazine, “Jimi Hendrix was coming to town. He was my first real rock star that dipped his dick and it was unbelievable. We were the groupies that got to the hotel first and we were the only groupies in Jimi Hendrix’s room. It wasn’t our very first cast. I had tried it on a few civilians first to be ready for Jimi. He’s my biggest. No, he’s not my biggest. There are “bigger-ish” others. But, I couldn’t say whether or not he’s my most exciting. Because, they’re my sweet babies and I am their mama and I’m very democratic with all my babies. I don’t like to play favorites. I love them all. The experiences were equally exciting and weird and different from each other.”
Check out a video interview with Cynthia with Rock Scene Magazine:
