These digital maquettes make up the latest work in my current chain of phantasmagorical history paintings, here called Ňamerica jesus tOrtureÓ (each 66 x 120 inches - acrylic on canvas). They are based on a fraction of the infamous digital photos from the Abu Graib abuse scandal. As such, they present embedded images of American torture that here echo the humiliating torture of Jesus Christ.
My position is
that for the consciousness of current American immorality to seep into a longer
sense of myth and history, beauty should be used as a seductive lure - a lure
that suggests a veneer of repression. For me, the images must leave the realm
of pop photo (here and then gone) and enter into the domain of the longer
duration of art.
more work in this series from 2006:
and