MASS painting

This is not an Exit (2008)

I have rather a back-log of paintings and videos to post, MASS is taking up all my time. This first one is a bit of a departure from my usual style, but I present it in the spirit of aesthetic experimentation none-the-less. Based on ‘The Kiss’ by Rodin, this piece is in three distinct tones, two of silver and one of black. The title and text refer to American Psycho by Brett Easton Ellis. The cold black hole between the indistinct faces of the two lovers echoes the black hole in the mind of Patrick Bateman, where his sexual encounters inevitably result in death.




acrylic on canvas 762mm x 1062mm


5 thoughts on “This is not an Exit (2008)”

  1. this reminds me of your madonna cover, justify my love. you have quite a way with scary and dirty twists. i think getting with you would be getting some strange for real. not that that’s a bad thing.

  2. Not all his sexual encounters resulted in death. He had girlfriends he permitted to live because murdering them would have made things messy in the world he made visible to others. A glimmer of humanity penetrated his underworld, though, when he ended a date with his secretary early and allowed her to depart, thus saving her life. He later married her and appeared to live a healthy lifestyle for a while.
    I’m particularly fond of this piece. I’m not sure if it is my appreciation for Ellis’s novels, the divergent style of the work, the current chapter in my life or the resulting erection from staring too long. Probably all four.

  3. ‘clever’ – perhaps not the worst criticism i’ve ever received – it certainly felt like a departure from my normal approach, i vacillate between loving it and hating it. it has a kind of 80s-athena feel which i think fits with the american psycho theme. what you don’t see in these photos is the pigment, which is iridescent and produces a changing tones of gray as you move about it.

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