Through Myopic Blue Eyes

A solo exhibition by A. Hal Wright.

“My work draws on traditional religious iconography, as well as pop art. To be precise Catholic, counter reformation imagery and 1950s British pop art. However, I like both the absurd and iconoclasm. Therefore, I have decided to subvert the religious imagery with a slight PPP art twist. I have produced a tryptic piece in the manner of religious altarpieces. However, instead of imagery of the trinity (eg, the father, the son and Holy Ghost) or known saints, I have chosen to make linocuts based on three paintings I produced of homeless men, English, Irish and Welsh vagrants.

Traditionally, the Saint of hopeless causes is Saint Jude. Yet, I have decided to elevate all three of the men to be Saints in themselves. The pop art aspect is denoted by the connotations such as the use of repetition and the complementary colours within the images and the double image printing. In a sense this work is a continuation of the images I made for an exhibition entitled ‘Through Myopic Blue Eyes’, in which I produced a series of screen print based images of ‘outsiders’ and elected them to the status of Andy Warhol-like superstars (eg, the series he produced of such luminaries as Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe and Chairman Mao. Moreover, I like the idea of subverting artistic traditions and using binary oppositions within my work also elevating the mundane into the sublime.”