Al Braithwaite: Breathe In The Healing Light of the Universe, I Am With You

Sharp divisions of black and white fields constitute a landscape of fundamental forms. What propels them in the mind of the viewer is the dramatic contrast set up by the forms’ physical all-or-nothing presence, and the subsequent inadequacy set up when the viewer recognizes the forms to be both alien and part of a greater whole.

Each composition takes it shape from dismembered forms prevalent in the day-to-day semiotics of global consumer capitalism. Hence each composition devotedly traces the familiar patterns and arcs made as the mind of a viewer may wrap their tongue around the curves of a Haribo logo for example, of gingerly dab a fingertip on the razor-sharp arrowhead of the USB icon; or likewise sit over the angled ledge of the Gee of the Gitanes logo or somersault off the face of the Visa sign, freely engaging in a parkour of the mind. This is the idea of landscape-as-playground; and the innocence of the child playing among giants.

The central theme spoken to is the force of corporate ideologies and brand myth. An art concerned with the basics of people selling themselves towards these aspirant dreams; the consoling force of believing in such dreams. In sum the black and white dichrome series’ use of details from daily brand identities may not in the end be able to promise anything and since the ordinary person cannot reliably tell the difference between the meaningful thing hidden in plain sight and the meaningless one, s/he is simply left to continue playing among the recesses, points, flanks, angles, necks, curves, narrows, sweeps, flourishes, postures, noggins, feet, serifs, conduits, smoothnesses, alignments, hollows, folds, lips, ledges, and shelves..