12/03/2017

It has been said that if you want to understand America's foreign policy, look at Star Trek. In trying to make paintings about the British Raj amnd colonialism I have decided to sidestep the colouring of my subjects' skin, and try expressing The Other as green.
This evokes the idea of the Other while keeping an ambiguity about the viewpoint of Otherness, which of course has to work both ways. Greenness keeps it freighted, but dual.
This painting decision also caused a train of thought about depiction of the Alien from Outer Space, the Little Green Man, the ultimate coloniser. The parallels between Outer Space and colonisers bring out how we Westerners actually do understand how the colonised feel: Beings arrive in an incomprehensibly-powered craft, landing either plonk in the middle of Civilisation or inexplicably but sinisterly in a remote place; if they speak, they show no empathy, if not they are difficult or impossible to communicate with; they want to take, potentially by force, something that has been exhausted or is otherwise unobtainable in their own place of origin; they view the natives (us) with cool objectiveness as inferior but possible harvestable stock; they are capable, even interested to administer pain in pursuit of knowledge and conquest, and it is not possible to imagine how to placate them except by giving them what they want. They are physically repulsive and clearly designed for conditions on some unimaginable but depleted home planet.

Ring any bells?