Kenny Cole
fanmail@kennycole.com
41 West Main Street
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These drawings, depicting atomic explosions were inspired by photos taken of nuclear testing in the 1950's from the book "100 Suns" by Michael Light. The overall intention of this work is to express a sense of a collective weariness toward ongoing military enterprises, thus the title of this series is "Black and Blue."
In the book each photo's sharp contrast of delicately defined atomic blossoms against the midnight black of the underexposed background gave me the initial inspiration to experiment with white tempera and black sumi ink. I Found that I could create a simple "accidental" quality through the blending, bleeding and dripping together of the two mediums, thus reflecting the natural forms inherent in both the explosions and the drawing mediums.
To this beginning I added a kind of high contrast iconography of black and white and cobalt blue, touching on themes of politics and religion, war and consumption. The clear molded "throw away" plastic serves to modulate, muddle or deform the viewer's air space in front of a part of each drawing, while it also breaks or explodes through the plane of the frame's plexi-glass. Along with the plastic are added cancelled checks, which are records of consumption, all suggesting that we need to look at our daily domestic lifestyles, question our consumption and our role as individual players in the overriding economic forces that demand and create military enterprises.