Each Devil His Own

Each Devil His Own, was an exhibition of paintings, drawings and site-specific installation drawing on tropes of the horrific, midcentury aesthetics & politics that sought to ask questions about the origins of certain, current sociopolitical narratives in the vernacular of pictures informed by theories of pictorial construction operating metaphorically. In three small series’ of original compositions I conflated my personal history and acquired knowledge with mid-century historical narratives in order to create pictures viewing important, current social concerns through the lens of history. This served as an entryway into a process of constructing images that drew on our collective conceptions of space and the stories we tell ourselves in order to navigate the environments we build.

 For this exhibition the interior plays host to a range of potential conversations related to aesthetics, politics and history. Central to this exhibition is an examination of postwar historical narratives; such as white flight and the American space program and their challenging effects on contemporary society. Both darkness and lightness are employed to present not only familiar looking interior spaces but also for their expressive narrative effect. Objects within each painted interior were chosen for the potential of their symbolic form to be both simultaneously loaded and banal. This duality, then resonated with similar formal choices within the work to drive the potential to open new space to create productive dialogue to the attendant issues. I was interested in drawing on our collective cultural memory as informed by the histories of painting, film, aggressive underground music and radical politics in order to paint a critical, collective self-portrait at a very critical time.