Folly

2015, Folly, Egg tempera and gold leaf on antique chestnut, 700 x 700 mm.

This work is based on the contents of a newspaper from one weekend in 2015 that reported: drug trafficking, war, starvation, slavery, obesity epidemic, vanity, financial greed, debauchery, inappropriate cosmetic surgery and climate change. Many similar issues were also of concern to Hieronymus Bosch (1450-1516) and Luca Signorelli (1441-1523) – thus, five hundred years later, little has changed - the ‘developed’ world undone by the stupidity, arrogance and folly of man: a world both globalised and despoliated by technology. The support of fragmented wood symbolises the disintegration of reason and the damage to the world - the use of medieval techniques with modern imagery attempts to document a conversation with the past. The background is based on Hereford Cathedral’s Mappa Mundi (c.1300) to place the artwork in the mythopoeic landscape with Jerusalem, still in many ways, being the axis. On the verso, the Earth depiction is based on a satellite image on 20th March 2015, the date of a solar eclipse: this is both a biblical reference and a reminder that mankind is insignificant in time and stature compared to celestial forces.