Here’s a new painting that I started last December and finished sometime in January. It’s part of the painting series A History of Progress, Violence and the Modern Spectacle. This one shows a pixilated photo of police officers using dogs on protesters in Birmingham, Alabama during the American Civil Rights Movement. The photo was originally taken by Charles Moore, a photojournalist from Alabama who also later cover the Vietnam War.
I thought it was important to add a fifth painting to this series in order to create a situation where an infinite amount of images could be added over time. I usually like to create closed systems for my series where a set number of pieces is pre-established in order to avoid redundancy; I thought that the subject matter of this series warranted unlimited possibilities for exploration and wanted the option to add to it over time.
This photo is actually doctored. I took the photo with a green background, cropped it and superimposed it over another pixel painting so that it has shadows and looks like it’s hanging on the wall. I also rounded the corners a little because paintings don’t have sharp corners, at least not ones that use canvas.
Brian Higbee 