Studio Notes: High tea, Kandahar Kandy 2011
Kandahar Kandy, Acrylic paint on canvas 20x20cm
I realised that this painting has not been posted in my Visual Diary so here it is. It is a small canvas (20x20cm) called Kandahar Kandy, and is a companion piece to Nothing Like A Drone (both Feb 2011 completed). I merged a Hollywood character with the woman in the hijab and the artificial limbs.
As this was one of the final paintings from the Judy Garland series, it is bringing in the religious context, in this case the Christian text of the bible (Revelation, Chapter 10) as a photo stencil screen printed over the canvas. I used this in some other canvases I just put away for another day. Perhaps they will age in the same way?
The crusader myth, whether others see it or not, appears so vivid to me from both the Christian and Muslim point of view. So from this perspective it is continuing the questioning and re-configuring of the French medieval epic poetry of chansons de geste in a way that challenges assumptions behind national security policies.
At the same time, it is also exploring the meaning of the Christian theology in the light of Afghanistan. I speak about this in depth in my Tikkun Magazine interview.
