Bob Garlick: I have been creating some art for the Downsized Art Show and as part of the process, I have been photographing the parts of the art as it evolved. Here is a breakdown of the art style, material used and the manifesto for this piece.

Name: Misguided Lust Type of Art: Found Art As Contemporary Political Statement Materials: Steal, foam, gold leaf, bolts, mobile phone

Why I use this style of art: I have been creating politically-charged pieces of art since my involvement with a radical Thai group of artists that used art to express their political position when faced with corruption. I worked with this group for 4 years. I now take the same approach and focus on the message relating to the decline of community,  sustainable living and the greed of consumerism. Many of my pieces are to enlighten people of the uncontrolled waste in all societies and the decay of community because of excessive work hours to feed the lust for “new things”.

Manifesto (meaning behind art): This piece is a statement that covers a lot of ground relating mostly with mega consumerism. The gold on the canvas and phone are there to symbolize the implied value of the products we consume and not there functionality (i.e. phones are about communicating with people). The high impact safety foam is to illustrate that products can safely bring us the happiness we experienced as children when rewarded. The bolts imply that we feel safer with wealth bolted down and under our control in a paranoid attempt to safeguard our daily life and not relying on community to help us do this. Combined the piece says a lot about our consumer, community and sustainability priorities and should be viewed not as a condemnation, but as a message of hope. If we can realize that our freedom is being stolen by disposable things that have little of no value then we can overcome and free ourselves from the need to satisfy ourselves with things and look deep within for happiness and satisfaction in our daily lives.

© 2010 ArtConverge (ISSN 1918-9273‏)

Art critic Thanom Chapakdee discusses cultural paradoxes, conflict and the art of “seeing” as he weaves his way through the comedic decay in Bob Garlick’s latest exhibition, ‘Rust’.

“The piece that most clearly demonstrates this is ‘The Decline of Lust’. Dried hanging roses confined in modern acrylic tubes on a background of rust represents a society blinded by its commercial cravings.”

We are always searching for ourselves so that we feel settled and secure in our environment. In many ways we are like refugees crossing landscapes in our minds trying to install ourselves in a stable land.

After we have been able to stablise ourselves, we search for our identity through media – we look for interpretation. But once we have found a level of understanding about who we are, many of us simply slip into a routine existence, comfortable in our enclosure.

We always secretly dream of a beautiful land – about what is on the other side of the mountain. But in reality it is no different from what we experience now, as our environment cannot change who we are. What we need to do is create our own identity and consume ourselves.

Meet Bob, The Politically Motivated Artist

Bob has rejected routine and comfort,
constantly searching for more meaning and context for his life.
But he always stays outside.
He is “seeing”.

The ‘Rust’ exhibition is an extension of his visualisation of Thai society. His work does not necessarily demonstrate what he believes in, but what he observes. He is standing outside – looking in.

In this way, he is protected from Thai society. And this is to his advantage as if he was inside it he would be blinded and consumed by the paradoxes and chaos. He sees the form.

I don’t even think he is interested in the root – like the root of Buddhism, as he is happier standing in front of it all, watching a crazy society unfold. He is like a lot of other people in one way. He does not know when he is Bob or when he is not – but it is only when he works that he can visualise what he sees.

Telephone Buddha is made from: Rusted Metal, Wood, Copper Wire and Gold Leaf

Take the ‘Telephone Buddha’ piece. A ruined and decayed wooden Buddha attached by strands of copper wire to golden mobile phones in a round shape – symbolising thammajak or a dhamma wheel.

With it he simultaneously explains and criticises Thai society and focuses
our attention on the conflict between consumerism and Buddhism.
It may scare people as it visualises an on-going conflict in our society
which some may prefer not to “see”.

In another way it is very a romantic view, symbolising social decay and harking back to a time that was more pure. The piece that most clearly demonstrates this is ‘The Decline of Lust’. Dried hanging roses confined in modern acrylic tubes on a background of rust represents a society blinded by its commercial cravings.

Telephone Buddha is made from: Rusted Metal, Wood and Weathered Wooden Elephant

Then there is ‘Elephant Profit’, which takes on the Thai icon. Found in a broken down spirit house, Bob offered the local motorcycle taxi drivers parked outside a new wooden elephant if he could take the old one. They accepted. And after finding the eldest in the gang, resurrected it.

Bob dares to criticise the beliefs of Thai culture by using it as visual art. He understands the visual culture in the context of Thai society and that’s why he is able to produce work that strongly satirises the society we live in.

The work has two sides. One is like a painful, or black comedy, the other is the paradox between Buddhism and consumerism. In many ways it is like Thai society itself – a land of super post-modernism.

© 2010 ArtConverge (ISSN 1918-9273‏)