TEACH THE CHILDREN - THE LURE (Series 1 Gold) Exhibited at Museum of Moden Art, Santo Domingo, PR. 1996
Original also available 33x39" US$ 8000.00 Original & Reproductions are much less pixelated.Click here for prices and sizes and scroll down to the name. Although not always obviously related, my Series 1 paintings can be broadly categorized as EXCURSIONS WITHIN THE 5TH DIMENSION. Each excursion has a distinctive flavor but all refer to the 5 dimensions of height, width, depth, time and memory.
This is quite a complicated piece. The overriding statement is clear enough, the wisdom of age seeing beyond the trap of the modern material world. But behind that lies a larger question of whether the so called developed countries have developed in the right direction and whether the wiser elements within the so called third world should not question their values before blindly making the same mistakes. The old woman leads the children out of danger. In classic cinematic style she leads them into the sunset.
In the background modern man, whom I often represent as a spaceman, revolves around the world he has created for himself. The spaceman is a perfect icon for modern man. He is enshrouded by the fruit of his intellect - technology. So much so that we can not recognize him. We can not see him for the thing he has become. Is he happy or sad? Is he young or old? Is he black or white? For all we know he may have died in there. He revolves around his world standing on his head, and we must question the correctness of his perspective on lifes values. Instead of making money in order to live he lives to in order to make money and for all his developments he is dwarfed beside the immense value of simple living.
I often use palm trees or chattel houses as icons for simple living but as the region chases the values of the first world I wonder how long these icons will remain pertinent.
We have to wonder who dangles the temptation of easy money on the hook from above. Perhaps it is some monstrous offspring of the heartless world that man has created. Perhaps it is society. Perhaps we tempt ourselves. Clearly this trap is old. The money is worn and wrinkled. The hook and line are discolored by the blood of previous victims.
The composition involves three rectangles. The first is the canvas itself creating the dimension in which the old woman contemplates. Behind her lies a second rectangle, a window to another dimension and within it another rectangular opening to yet another dimension. The furthest dimension is the material world of 3D, height, width and depth. The intermediate dimension is that of time plus those 3Ds. This is the dimension of here and now. The dimension in which the woman stands is the 5th dimension where memory is divided by questions and thought.
Nick
Island Arts Galleries, St. John's, Antigua, West Indies.
