Stooky Bill

Description

Stooky Bill is a splash painting in the style of outsider art and loosely part of the algorithm series of paintings.

The painting is a splash painting with newspaper added on top later and then the brushwork depicting the TV and antennas added later.

The name Stooky Bill is a reference to John Logie Baird who invented the television in my hometown of Hastings way back in the 1920’s. In early experiments with transferring images, Mr Baird transmitted images of a ventriloquist dummy that he nicknamed Stooky Bill. Hence the name of the artwork.

The algorithm series is a series of paintings about how we are all now living in a dystopian reality at the mercy of bad-faith actors and algorithms. This painting is a way of connecting our current situation with an earlier technological leap.

Written on the TV screen is the question ‘For God’s sake John what have you done?’ which I mean in a Pandora’s box kind of sense.

I read once that John Logie Baird believed that television would lead to a greater depth of understanding between human beings and be a tool to create a more harmonious world. But I have long been of the suspicion that he wouldn’t be very impressed with what we’ve done with the invention he gifted us.