ARITHMOCRATS

I arranged the vintage advertising text to create three totems. The bold symbols subjugate the earthy background and capture attention as they were originally designed—to lure potential consumers. Having a degree in anthropology, and being strongly attracted to tribal art, the irony of using commercial text to simulate a traditional, indigenous artform core to a tribe’s culture and spirituality is not lost on me, and may even be somewhat heretical. Such can be the nature of collage, where the recombination of unrelated imagery can suggest varying levels of paradox--maybe it’s 5 clowny guys and a ninja turtle in the lower right corner, or just jumbled letters and numbers.