Totemic
send up the flares
the passenger ("clack" you disconnect from me)
dark & long
the machine
don't look! your happiness just got deadly
i could swear i saw a light coming on
underwatermetalshine
When I was young I would love to look at illustrated novels, like Treasure Island, and try to figure out the story just from the pictures. The illustrations were often accompanied with a caption; usually a line from the story. Even when I knew the story by heart, I liked to wonder why a particular scene was important enough to be illustrated. It was often a pivotal plot point or climax. I love expressing that feeling of imminent excitement, the narrative hook, that draws you in and captures your imagination. In my drawings, I present to the viewer a picture from an unwritten story, with only the images and the caption to explain the scene - and to allude to what has happened and what is to come.
I use a lot of technological imagery, particulary antiquated forms of transportation such as steam locomotives, ocean liners and prop-driven airplanes. Aside from their aesthetic value, I choose them because they are images from the past and the past exists to us only in the form of narratives - of stories. They are out of touch with our present surroundings; therefore they create a surreal atmosphere that is detached from reality, almost dreamlike.
posted by brian r. williams at 12:03 PM
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