BarkerJones

It’s surprising how a single, simple decision can have such a wide reaching and profound effect on everything else in a person’s life. In November 2020, sitting at home watching the closing credits of a documentary about the meat and dairy industry, I chose, without the slightest hesitation, to become plant-based. 

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However, choosing to become plant-based should come with an advisory note. Once you start digging down into why such a diet may be better for you and for the environment, you are soon confronted with some uncomfortable truths - like the evident link between agribusiness and climate change for example. From all that I have understood so far, no amount of tree planting, changing of lightbulbs or the retrofitting of homes will make any real difference. So, once you start digging it can become very ethically challenging. And if you’re not careful, all of this can turn you into a proselytising heretic and an absolute bore at the dinner table. You still there?

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These paintings are a result of all this enquiry. With a mindset of 'Don't worry, it's all happening someplace else' this series of paintings look at humankind's inability to see beyond their own hubris, influenced by the anti-war photomontage work by Martha Rosler. Although these paintings are quiet and on the whole passive, there's a lot of personal anger, frustration and cynicism from myself towards all that's not so great about modern culture.

 

Graham

Some recommended reading: ‘Comfortably Unaware’ by Dr. Richard A. Oppenlander, ‘The Omnivores Dilemma’ by Michale Pollen, ‘Meat Atlas’ 2021 by Heinrich Boll Stiftung / Friends of the Earth Europe, ‘The Hidden Life of Trees’ by Peter Wohlleben, ‘The Great Animal Orchestra’ by Bernie Krause