FEARWOLF
The Fearwolf, a modern villain based on the concept of a werewolf, is a human being who transforms into a fear-mongering monster. An example of which would be a politician who uses fear tactics and divisive rhetoric to turn people against each other in an attempt to gain power. In this series of the same name; current political events are reimagined as fables and the classic story of The Three Little Pigs is rewritten as if it were to unfold in today’s political climate. Appropriating select images from Disney’s 1933 cartoon “Three Little Pigs” I imagine it is the wolf and not the pigs who builds the wall. Blending these popular media images with news media images such as those from the cover of Time Magazine’s 2016 Person on the Year issue featuring Donald Trump, I acknowledge the media storm that has made our modern monster.
As the Fearwolf series presents itself in drawings and paintings it isaccompanied by a series of sculptures, where objects such as a bricks and newspapersare coated in gold. These ordinary objects are Trump Certified and ready for use whether it be in the southern borderwall or in the emerging war on news media. Trump’s enthusiasm to stifleobjective journalism has been matched by his readiness to provide alternativefacts. Referencing just that, these sculptural newspapers are created inTrump’s image; flashy, trashy and incapable of providing any information. Setagainst the backdrop of the Fearwolfseries the irony of this collection of works becomes apparent and the wolf isfound to be biting the hand that feeds.
These multidisciplinary works seethe convergence of drawing, painting and sculpture while the classic practicesand materials of representation and oil paint encounter the subversion ofpolitical cartooning; graffiti and spray paint. As material invention clasheswith custom so too does humour meet politics when serious issues refuse to takethemselves too seriously. Because if you don’t laugh; you’ll certainly cry.