Description

Aluhuttrager. I painted this as part of the Algorithm series. I learnt the word Aluhuttrager from a German friend and liked it so much that it ended up being the concept for this painting. The word translates literally as ‘tin foil hat wearer’ and is used in a derogatory sense to describe people who take an interest in various conspiracy theories.

The quote on the left is a quote by Marcus Aurelius: “The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.”

The dead canary is a reference to the old tradition of coal miners taking canaries into the mine with them to act as an early warning system if there were toxic gases in the mine. Obviously in this painting, the canary is dead.

In terms of painting technique, most of the paint has been applied either with a brush or scraper. The tin foil hat is actually tin foil and the collage parts are cut from newspapers.