Work Title: A Momentary Illness of the Sun
Medium: Mixed Media, Silver and Oil on board (2015-6), (Series of 11)
Short Statement on the Work:
'A Momentary Illness of the Sun' is a series of collage-painting works made on the day of the solar eclipse in 2015. The use of silver pigment and the abstraction/covering of the figures was spontaneously inspired while looking outside of the studio window at the long shadows at 11 am in the morning, and wondering about the sudden alternation of the sun/moon positions.
Short Statement on Work in General:
Images of the powerful and renown- emperors, athletes, politicians, religious figures- have always been of interest to me and are used as a started point in my mixed media work that uses found images. What interests me, for example in a bust of a Roman emperor or a grandiose Fascist sports stadium is that these monuments were made with to last eternally, yet paradoxically demonstrate an inevitable fall from pinnacles of the ideal. My interest lies in this inevitable image disintegration, such as youtube videos or Zinedine Zidane headbutting a football opponent, or Djokovic kissing a trophy- with their carefully cultivated images, gestures and heroic movements- not unlike their ancient counterparts. They teeter on the abyss of being ripped apart through the public eye, (media and social media). The image in glory and the image in ruins are equally attractive to me. Through deconstruction of these images through painting, collage and sculpture, I seek to further understand the power these images hold, like a modern day iconoclasm.
Link to works online: www.tintincooper.com
