shardcore

Venus, the Roman Goddess of Love has been rendered by artists thousands of times over the centuries. Almost universally represented as a nude, suggesting that the notion of love is tied with the pleasures of the flesh. Venus is also used as an excuse to paint a beautiful naked woman (as if an excuse is needed). For the Christian painters of the early Renaissance, such images inevitably become bound to the moral strictures of the time.

This particular Venus is based on a painting by Cranach the Elder, who was himself a friend of Martin Luther (who’s moral outrage at the corrupt Catholic Church led to a new branch of Christianity).

The painting is made on a surface of 1980s comics, which may be considered morality tales in themselves. Comics provide simple stories of good versus evil, echoing the framework of the society they represent – Judeao/Christian moral landscape which in many ways remains unchanged since the Renaissance.

I have denied my Venus her beauty by replacing her head with a skull. A reminder that all of us are born condemned to die, that corporality is always hiding just beneath our skin. For those who believe in an ‘afterlife’, how we conduct ourselves inside our fleshy vessels impacts greatly on what happens after death.

I have placed the painting in a frame of my own construction, embedded with other signifiers of childhood moral gameplay; marbles, toy soldiers and cowboys & indians and other drossy ephemera.

Cranach painted many religious and mythological subjects throughout his career, which I intend to investigate through a series of paintings – of which this is the first – viewing the contemporary world through the moral lens of the 15th Century Master.

Filed by shardcore at 4:40 pm under 3d, painting
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Thankfully, my general demeanour is relatively upbeat, however, like many others, I am subject to the occasional bout of depression. While every shred of my rational self tries to escape the crushing blanket of hopelessness, it’s no easy feat. It was during a recent episode that I was inspired to create this image.

For me, depression is the feeling of being at the depths of the ocean, beneath a mass of suffocating darkness. I imagined being entwined in the tentacles of a giant octopus, holding me below. And there I remain, until the beast relinquishes his hold, and I may rise back to the surface.

Acrylic on canvas, 762 x 508mm

Filed by shardcore at 4:54 pm under painting
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I updated these two for Congregation 2010

“The Minotaur of Greek mythology was the result of the union of Pasiphae and a bull. He dwelt inside the labyrinth and devoured anyone who entered. Here the minotaur is presented as an Army General – you can draw your own conclusions. I have painted this diptych in a deliberately cartoonish style to underline the sense of displacement between our perceptions of war delivered via the media, and the horror of reality.”

“This painting was first produced for MASS in 2008, and shown alongside The General as a response to the senseless, illegal wars being fought in our name. It’s two years later, we have a hung parliament, we’re still at war – so much for the democratic process.”

Filed by shardcore at 12:35 pm under Congregation, painting
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acrylic on canvas 762mm x 1062mm

For some people the very act of contemplation results in even greater uncertainty. Perhaps some truths simply cannot be found by inward reflection alone.

Filed by shardcore at 12:29 pm under Congregation, painting
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acrylic on canvas 762mm x 1062mm

Each of us will die, that much is certain. However, our feelings about what happens next are the subject of much debate.

As an atheist, I have no problem accepting the cessation of my consciousness and subsequent decay of my body into it’s constituent elements.

Yet, there’s something primeval about our response of seeing a skeleton – a deep-seated fear of mortality, a calling from the limbic system.

How one choses to rationalise that response perhaps tells us a great deal about questions of faith.

Filed by shardcore at 12:26 pm under Congregation, painting
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