“It is a natural human instinct to turn our fears into symbols, and destroy the symbols, in the hope that it will destroy the fear. It is a logic that keeps recurring throughout human history, from the Crusades to the witch hunts to the present day.”
Johann Hari, ‘Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs’
Premium refined sweetness…sugar, the reason the pope allowed slavery, the reason rum exists, also a factor behind at least one outbreak of witch trials, it is not an economically viable opinion to challenge the sanctity of sweet tasting sugar.
The sacred union of product utility and idol, simple, common, mass-produced marvel… popular democracy of pop consumption.
The brute caricature portrays black men as innately savage, destructive predators who target helpless victims, especially white women.
Nothing sells like sex sells and sex sells everything.
Perspective is a function of narrative; narrative is a result of popular belief.
Oil stained, black monsters the myth becomes worldview.
We are conditioned to emotionally respond, constantly bombarded by stimulus that is surgically designed to elicit simple emotive response, endless marketing and advertising.
Panopticon is a jail where inmate’s behaviour is regulated by the threat of constant surveillance through building design.
This work is a response to my viewing pop art in new york … dots on plywood mimic the spread of dots and half tone dots in commercial screen-printing, and the web of interconnected nodes imposed by the inescapable media machine.