Stir Crazy by Kieran Jack Rook
Description
Original Painting. During these trying times, of distance and isolation, with the world down on its hands and knees begging for some kind of respite from the unabating elephant in the room...
‘Stir Crazy’
150x100 CM
Medium:
Oil paint on canvas
Artwork detail explain:
An uncharacteristically large male figure sits on a small unmade bed, resting both arms upon his knees, fingers interlocked, with his distorted swirling face looking out disconcertingly making eye contact with the viewer. He sits still, in an aged nondescript room. Behind the figure, to the right of the room, drawn-open dingy dated curtains reveal a predatory corporate mascot knocking at the window. On the adjacent wall a trompe l'oeil mural simulates the replica of the 35,000-year-old cave art masterpiece the French government funded. The simulacra of wild fauna appears as though they are fleeing in the opposite direction from the corporate mascot, however unbeknownst to them they are merely one in the same. In the bottom left of the painting we find two tiny figurines dancing with one another, in a dream-like foray of reverie, upon a table, under the tungsten glow of a single bedside lamp.
Concept:
During these trying times, of distance and isolation, with the world down on its hands and knees begging for some kind of respite from the unabating elephant in the room. It’s hard not do a little overthinking, so you work yourself up, and loose a little faith in reality and what it means to be human (just me?). With ‘Stir Crazy’ I am unclear as to whether this is solely a self-portrait or I have just used my portrait as a surrogate figure for anyone struggling alone in isolation experiencing some form of existential crisis in one way or another. The lack of uncertainty for the future, the loss of life, of jobs, and economic hardship, can be bewildering for those suffering in silence. What has been brought to light, as we all close our doors and cower away, with only a certain few martyrs holding fort through this tempest, is the feeling of helplessness with the breakdown of society into a form of Orwellian nightmare. It is in these times that we begin to question what does it mean to be human within the absurdity of it all? However the glimmer of hope is our memories, our memories of better times, and if we just hold on for a while longer, we will be able to create new memories, together.
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Oil painting, figuration, Post-digital surrealism, existentialism.
