Attainment's source image is of Philip Hammond and Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla the Foreign Ministers of Britain and Cuba at the British ambassador's residence in Havana, meeting to re-open trade after the Cubain trade embargo was softened in July of 2016.
The Only Thing Worse's source image is of the Prime Minister of Tunisia announcing his selection for a new cabinet, earlier this year. The title is a reference to a quote from Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray: “There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.” |
I make paintings in order to examine the visual language of the media. Most of us receive information about the acts of the authorities through personal digital devices. Yet a political discourse requires a more complex space for interaction beyond the allowance of binary opinions that the competition for Internet points affords us.
This body of work originated from mediated news videos found online. Once removed of their contextual signifiers of specific people or administrations, what remains is a soft power vocabulary of wealth. These recitals of authority use a continuity of historical wealth that asserts a inherited right to rule that persists regardless of ideological positions.
I use painting to propose an alternate speed of image consumption in opposition to the impatience of digital content. I wish to focus a discussion on the performance and staging of governmental power, and how visual context influences our interpretation of information.
This body of work originated from mediated news videos found online. Once removed of their contextual signifiers of specific people or administrations, what remains is a soft power vocabulary of wealth. These recitals of authority use a continuity of historical wealth that asserts a inherited right to rule that persists regardless of ideological positions.
I use painting to propose an alternate speed of image consumption in opposition to the impatience of digital content. I wish to focus a discussion on the performance and staging of governmental power, and how visual context influences our interpretation of information.