The Assassination of Judy Garland - A Metaphorical Portrait of America - Part 1 is a personal reflection on American mythology. It uses the chansons de geste (French medieval epic poetry) and Broadway musicals as a metaphor to explore the changing political narratives in America today. Subsequently, it explores the energies that will affect everyone else. These paintings fuse surrealism with images inspired by contemporary urban environments; including street art, old subway posters and 60s airport paperbacks. I explore metaphors for changing political narratives beginning, but not ending, with America.
Like my 2006 work, this series is a wake for old ideas such as the Rule of Law. So no, it is not anti-military, but it is cautionary about the militarisation of civil society. And it is about leadership, deception, and false messiahs. I also repeat stencil motifs within paintings as a 'musical note'.
The idea of the chansons de geste as a metaphor for the American political narrative lies in its propagandist elements in the Middle Ages and the fact that Christian/Islamic conflict was central to these songs/poems. As freedom of expression has become both suppressed, and warped, it became clear that to assassinate the creative spirit within a nation - any nation - is a tragedy of epic proportion.
2012 Work In Progress
These paintings, under the working title The Resurrection of the Tin Man, are an exploration of the philosophical, religious and psychological issues raised by trans-humanist narratives. It is still political in that spirituality and/or religion is potentially more transformative in this next century given the declining confidence in a purely political world view. The characters, also, offer rich imaginative possibilities for paintings and I asked some wonderful people to become characters in my series. The late (and generous) Jennifer Miro of 70s punk band The Nuns appears in What Is This Thing Called Love? [2nd left]
My current canvas is a storyline that bridges quantum physics entanglement theory with biotechnology and features Assoc Prof Caslav Brukner a very clever physicist from Vienna. Working titled The Antigenical Tourist.
