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The resurrection of George 乔治的重生

Scotland_edited_edited.jpg

2018

30cms (W) x 24cms (H)

Oil on Panel

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I was walking around my neighbourhood one day and came across an elderly man sitting in the street using a very old sewing machine to mend a little girl's bag. The subject of this painting is the little girl and her relationship with her "Peppa pig" bag. I was fascinated that she had this throwaway, inexpensive back-pack, but was repairing it in this manner. I found myself thinking 'Why wouldn't she just throw it away and buy a new one?'; then I started to think about that thought and how stupid and dangerous it was - especially taking into account the environmental damage of consumerist behaviours.


The old man for me represents a generation here that had to really struggle to make ends meet; reuse, repair, get every bit of value out of something. He was still using his decades old sowing machine. The young girl represents the probability that the younger generations of chinese people will take a lead role in finding new sustainable models of consumption.


I enjoyed also contrasting the rusty, industrial machine, grizzled hunched old craftsman with Peppa the Pig's gawdy, shiny, simple grin.


I originally called this 'The resurrection of Peppa', but then someone who has kids pointed out to me that it wasn't Peppa, it was George. Probably a good thing, since Peppa is almost certainly a copywrited image owned by a massive company (Disney by now?) so i've probably been saved from years of legal battles and compensation claims. Phew!

一天,我在住所附近闲逛,遇到一个老人;他在街边用一台很旧的缝纫机,修理着一个小女孩的书包。这幅画的主题是小女孩以及她与“ 小猪佩奇”书包的关系。我很好奇,这个书包似乎已经很久,可以丢掉了,但她正在以这种方式来修它。我自己在想:“为什么她不把它扔掉买新的?”;然后我开始考虑这个想法,以及它有多愚蠢和危险-特别是考虑到消费主义行为对环境的损害。

对我来说,这位老人代表了这里的一代人,他们必须努力维持生计;重复使用,修复,从一些物品中获得每一点价值。他还在用他那台有几十年历史的缝纫机。这个年轻的女孩代表了中国年轻一代在寻找新的可持续消费模式方面发挥主导作用的可能性。

我还很喜欢这个生锈的工业机器、头发花白、驼背的老工匠和小猪佩奇傻乎乎的、闪亮的、简单的笑容之间的对比。

我最初把这幅画叫“佩奇的重生”,但后来一个有小孩的人跟我说,这不是佩奇,是乔治。这大概是件好事,因为佩奇几乎可以肯定是大公司(现在是迪士尼?)有版权的卡通形象,所以我可能因此免于多年的法律斗争和赔偿要求。呼。。。。。。长舒一口气!

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