Religion & Culture

Click on an image to see an enlargement - you can then use the 'backward/forward' arrows under the bottom right-hand corner of enlargement to see all artworks in this collection. You can also use the backward/forward arrows on your keyboard to do the same.

Culture Club

The Semiotics of Creationism

Three cells of images that relate to Christian symbolic portrayals of God and creation.

The top panel comprises several overlayed and merged works based on Michelangelo's God & Adam in the Sistine Chapel, including a female God and a female (Eve) combined with Adam. Although the layers are merged, they are deliberately non-aligned creating a blurred appearance analogous to an impression of movement. Look closely and a pixilated layer can be seen... it alludes to the printing process used in comics. The image is, therefore, an amalgam of old and new, and ancient and modern.

The bottom two, side by side panels, present symbolic interpretations of a multi-layered God and a Prophet.

All in One God

By combing multiple layers of images, each containing a different visual representation of 'God' relating to multiple religions, cultures and centuries, this digital painting is the outcome - an all-in-one incarnation of a single God.

In this 'All in One God' version includes multiple repeats of the same God, each version, different in colour, apparent texture and tone... collectively, they allude to the various facets of the same God... each believer/follower seeing their own God in different ways.

On the one hand, it may be described as Art About Art, on the other hand, is an attempt at blurring boundaries and merging conflicting histories. Representation, abstract pattern and implied texture all play their part in presenting an icon like artwork.

Allegory of Faith

This is an Art About Art work. The composition is based on a Vermeer painting of the same name.

Here, the allegory has become more complex. The content of the image behind the central figure consists of 2 figures from Van Eyck's Arnolfini Marriage painting.

The idea of the easel in front of the couple is appropriated from a work by Richard Hamilton. The image on the easel alludes 'painting by numbers' and consists of a remake and remodeled Roxy Music, Country Life, album cover.

In my remake, the title has changed to Culture Show and the two females pictured in their underwear, one wearing a nun's habit, the other a burqa hood... are indicators of different religions. In this context, they pose questions and comparisons about cultural and religious differences and intolerances.

Culture Show

A 5' x 5' acrylic painting.

The composition consists of a remake and remodeled Roxy Music, Country Life, album cover. In my remake, the title has changed to Culture Show and the two females pictured in their underwear, one wearing a nun's habit, the other a burqa hood... are indicators of different religions. In this context, they pose questions and comparisons about cultural and religious differences and intolerances.

Arnolfini Culture Show

The Adoration of the Plastic Goat