Hazard Paintings
16/02/1994
Hazard Warning Paintings No.1 (3) & No.2 (5)
This involves the idea of the barrier – these works, by their semblance to industrial products (colouring and graphic design) are meant to distance the viewer, to set up an unwillingness to approach. They do this in several ways. Firstly they simulate a barrier, by their close proximity. Then, in their menacing and garish colours they repel. Thirdly, their flat, machine-like finish precludes inspection for that “authentic touch of the hand”.
However, they are still clearly paintings, and so are on the border between representation and actually being signs: never emphatically either.
Their second mode of representation is the symbols in their centre. The juxtaposition of these various images for toxic or dangerous objects reinforces the repellent aspects of the paintings, as well as suggesting interconnections between each other.
This involves the idea of the barrier – these works, by their semblance to industrial products (colouring and graphic design) are meant to distance the viewer, to set up an unwillingness to approach. They do this in several ways. Firstly they simulate a barrier, by their close proximity. Then, in their menacing and garish colours they repel. Thirdly, their flat, machine-like finish precludes inspection for that “authentic touch of the hand”.
However, they are still clearly paintings, and so are on the border between representation and actually being signs: never emphatically either.
Their second mode of representation is the symbols in their centre. The juxtaposition of these various images for toxic or dangerous objects reinforces the repellent aspects of the paintings, as well as suggesting interconnections between each other.
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