or

City vs City I-VII
]]> http://paxnorthart.wordpress.com/2009/06/02/city-vs-city-i-vii/feed/ 0 paxnorthart City Vs City I(Churchill) City vs City II(Goebbels) City vs City III(Beuys) City vs City IV(Turing) City vs City V(The Master Control) City vs City VI(The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner) City vs City VII (The Skull of Zeus) http://paxnorthart.wordpress.com/2009/05/24/huh/ http://paxnorthart.wordpress.com/2009/05/24/huh/#comments Sun, 24 May 2009 18:54:36 +0000 paxnorthart http://paxnorthart.wordpress.com/2009/05/24/huh/ ]]> So people do actually read that email address…

(larger image)

This work started over ten years ago, when, in one of the climactic shots of Ron Fricke’s filmic oddysey ‘Baraka’, the camera dollies forward to show a closeup of a gilded skeleton in the monument of Pope Alexander VII (Bernini, 1678, when the artist was 80), his (or her?) face obscured by a swath of fabric, holding an hourglass aloft.

There is of course an admonition in this, even if one doesn’t share in the soothing (?) notion of an apocalypse, one’s own world, oneself, will end. And the time and date of our departure is veiled from us. You and I, as we know ourselves, will end.

Earlier Version:

This work was relatively simple, with few revisions, in the end the angel of death figure assumed a more turbulent character, and almost seems to be wearing some kind of helmet or cybernetic armour. Like some being shifting in and out of phase, vaprous wraith and shadow one moment, unstoppable juggernaut the next.

I suppose in a sense then, this work extends from ideas of the Grim Reaper.  (Really great article, and a brief look at the way in which ‘death’ has been characterized.) I also feel there was  some kind of my thinking coalescing the idea of sports as metahor of some kind of redemption. I don’t normally watch football, but Santonio Holme’s last minute catch in the 2009 Superbowl, coalesced in my mind with the line from De La Soul’s “Long Island Degrees”;  we in the last quarter y’all, somebody’s gonna cry‘.  And I suppose, I see death as some of both, a great victory, some passage to peace, and a great sorrow for those still here.

P

So, this is where most of my work happens. It’s a 19th century coal cellar in a building in the relatively abandoned downtown area of Brandon Manitoba. I moved here almost two years ago following a woman, and to get away from Vancouver’s extortionate rates for studio space, among other things. I also have family from here, and that was engaging to me, to see this place my mother had talked about, to see the grave of my grandmother. There isn’t a ‘lot to do’ here, in tems of nightlife, and this has been a reason to stay as well, there are few distractions, and I have been able to focus. I’ve been working seriously at my painting for over ten years, and I haven’t really wanted to ‘put it out there’, as I wasn’t satisfied with what I was producing, the energies I was conveying. And I think that’s a good thing, as I had no desire to add to the Aegean glut of boring art. Theres no accounting for taste, of course, but one has to be accountable for one’s own,  and mine would not let me really ‘push’ my work until it was ready. The invisible man would know what I’m talking about. I hope you find some connection with it.

P