“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” (Triptych 2400mm x 1200mm)
The Olympic Dream
(2400mm x 1200mm)
Whiteys’ on the moon. Again (2400mm x 1200mm)
This is VIOLENCE the 7th circle in my reimagining of Dante’s Divine Comedy part 1. My post apocalyptic dystopian walls continue with @lovewilko wallpaper an unusual addition to my art supplies but fantastic brick wall look and texture. Working with it and papers frailty meant that my usual exuberance had to be contained and with the subject matter it reminded me of the innate fragility of the human condition. The main image is one of my stencils of a friend’s kid playing on a farm transported to the hell of war torn Ukraine. The supporting images tell the story that the world needs war to support the military industrial complex and civilians are simply collateral damage in the quest for profit. Violence. #dante #robertrauschenberg #artcurator #artcurators #artcollector #artgallery #artgalleries #artThis is the 7th circle in my visual reimagining of Dante’s Nine Circles of Hell, the first part of his Divine Comedy. In my version the hell is the torment we the people suffer at the hands of the wealthy who, with their control of the politicians and therefore the wheels of finance, justice and law enforcement, operate the World in an escalating death spiral reinforced by their trifecta of narcissism, greed and stupidity. However, no matter how narcissistic they are they must see the damage. They just don’t care. My reimagining is of various fly blown walls in a post apocalyptic dystopia, using old advertising posters, stencils and graffiti. GREED is a wall in deserted SOHO and brings together various malignant forces undermining society. The coronation is referenced here as although i’m not of the mind that the Windsors are inherently evil, they do however represent all that is wrong about our thoroughly lopsided society and are seemingly so indulged because they are required as the figureheads of this new patrician class that has emerged. The Ultra Rich. The politicians are there to write the laws to shield their wealth and wherever possible funnel money to them and the police are there to uphold those laws and protect their wealth. Epstein is referenced (and will continue to be so) as the Ghislaine Maxwell trial will go down as the biggest coverup in history as 400 of the richest, greediest men have been protected from their heinous goings on by the US judiciary. Protecting or serving us the people has long since been removed from the police operating agenda and they respond to us either violently when we protest or only when they absolutely have to and very reluctantly. This entire point could also be seen in a worldwide perspective only the other week when we had the resources of 15 countries searching for 5 men that had willingly entombed themselves in an unseaworthy container whilst at the same time letting 500 people die in an open boat off the coast of Greece. Greed, 7th circle of Hell. Mixed Media on plywood 1200mm x 1600mm. Even a cursory investigation into the killing reveals that there was no possible way that Lee Harvey Oswald was the assassin. There are no other suspects.Over the years I have taken an undue interest in American politics, exacerbated by the arrival of Trump and a new style of right wing anti people policies with the most heinous one being the overturn of Roe vs Wade and suppression of abortion rights in the Red states. Whilst this is being framed as right to life its clearly only done for control as it is running seamlessly alongside the new rush to ban books, slavery conversations, anti drag/trans laws etc. The strategic Putin goal of the conflict was to restore part of the USSR and to halt any NATO expansion. Now that Finland has been incorporated it’s a political as well as humanitarian disaster.The main image is of a friend of mines kid playing happily on a farm but with the addition of a flag and some bullet holes she’s transported into the hell of current Ukraine. As horrific a war as the Syrian conflict, still raging for 11 years, just as unnecessary and with one common ogre.Recreating the classic image of Yosser Hughes in Alan Bleasdales ‘Boys from the Blackstuff’ and reimagining as anyone from anywhere in the dystopian society that is being carved out for us by our broken democracy and new plutocracy.A comment on the laudable but obviously utterly imaginary policy to level up the country whilst actually siphoning all the money to their own interests. I’m using the idiotic Victorian pencil and Yosser as poster boys and protagonists in this unequal battle.I’ve been fascinated by Zebras since a child and later discovering that the reason for the stripes is that they confuse the compound eyes of flies. No flies on Zebras. This picture incorporates many of my images: pterodactyls; diabolical liberty: old Worthless stencils and my Heinz soup cans and represents for me, dystopian pop art.I have been making pictures and assemblages portraying Americas gun culture (most obviously with my flags) and in particular the way that the police exercise their powers with casual indifference to life. Black life in particular.With a nod to the Jeffrey Epstein case and T-shirts, I made some designs fully expecting the same fate to befall her. The only surprise is that she hasn’t and then realising that it all depends on her keeping silent and protecting the power brokers that were all aboard the Lolita Express. To finish my Zebra story, it wasn’t until an Australian scientist dressed a horse in a zebra costume that the evolution myth behind the stripes was finally accepted.Full on dystopia, imagining that with the current course of climate breakdown, corruption, pestilence and inequality that it won’t be long before society finally cracks, impodes and leaves the raccoons running things. I’ve given her human hands to slightly sinistise the image.This was the first picture of the series and uses some of my favourite images: The Unknown Hoody; my usual climate commentators, Polly parrot and Peggy Orang Utan ; and the camels that lead us back to the Australian wildfires and Murdoch doublespeak. However it is the etymology behind Helicopter that is my favourite fact after the zebra stripes. Its Helico – Spiral and Pter – Flying Lizard and not Heli Copter. Still makes me smile.Planning my first solo show without galleries or dealers, I have been trying to work out how I can be a selling artist whilst still maintaining my integrity. And then I had a brainwave. Us artists are bombarded by crypto scammers trying to sell us into making NFT’s out of our work, promising us imaginary returns for nothing more than a digital record of our work. So I thought I’d turn the idea on its head and do what crypto was originally intended to do, which is to basically create a market separate from the established ways and the dealers, banks, money launderers etc. The paintings shown here represent approx a day and a half of artisan labour + costs and are being sold at £300 each. The price does not take into account my imagination or any of the costs associated with a lifetime of practice in one form or another. However, the intention is to build up my collectors from ground up and as I do the market will naturally then start to decide the price of future work and my initial collectors will have an investment as well as an original work.
