135, 2017-11, Concerning the heavy-handed use of symbols., oil on linen, 60 x 90″ (148 x 228cm) (detail, 2)
This is nominally only a criticism of the unwarranted casualness with which anyone may invoke symbols to avoid any particular intellectual heavy lifting. My protagonist, possibly a gnostic hylic Galatea of sorts, wields the corpus of western culture in a burning heap, as if to fling it right back at the viewer. More obscurely, the scenario may recall to one’s mind Aristotle’s Four Causes: materiality is not enough, we are nothing if not purposeful, and art is an ethical expression.