Untitled
Artifact
1997.031.013
20th century
John Scott is considered one of the more engaged Canadian artists in social, political and cultural issues, and in particular, the plight of the ordinary person. He received early publicity for the work Real Life Size, a rough rendering of a cruise missile that was used to lead an anti-nuclear rally. The ensuing copious body of work is described as being born from an imagination fed by “science fiction, the Space Age and Motor City (Windsor) manufacturing and blight,” that sympathizes with “the worker as a human tool in the global industrial complex.” His work “traces the trajectory of heavy industry, high technology, military might and mechanical folly as they clear-cut their way through blighted landscapes and a besieged human psyche.” The works on display here incorporates soothing text that actually heightens the anxiety of the viewer by suggesting that the solution is simple as they sleep through an apocalypse of humanity’s own making.
latex and acrylic on paper
Painting
Collection of the University of Saskatchewan. Gift of Mark Frizzel, 1997.