Beyond Thunder Rome
2005
acrylic, oil, and tempera on canvas
48"x36"
From the Exhibition Catalogue:
James Johnson’s triptych, "Beyond Thunder Rome", suggests a sort of beginning of the end. Johnson’s gruesome painting style and color palette depicts three telemarketers transformed into rapturous mutants, welcoming us to the Apocalypse. Their bright, smiling faces seem to be melting away, a technique Johnson uses to suggest the layers of deception that these workers have come to represent. As the layers peel away, several cultural and historical connotations become clear, ranging from the fiscal entrapment hidden in credit agencies’ offers to polluted gestures of kindness, such as the smallpox-laced blankets issued by the US military to unsuspecting Native Americans. More accurately however, Johnson’s paintings seem to be directed towards the buying and selling of ourselves within consumer culture and the warm welcome with which it greets us.
James Johnson’s triptych, "Beyond Thunder Rome", suggests a sort of beginning of the end. Johnson’s gruesome painting style and color palette depicts three telemarketers transformed into rapturous mutants, welcoming us to the Apocalypse. Their bright, smiling faces seem to be melting away, a technique Johnson uses to suggest the layers of deception that these workers have come to represent. As the layers peel away, several cultural and historical connotations become clear, ranging from the fiscal entrapment hidden in credit agencies’ offers to polluted gestures of kindness, such as the smallpox-laced blankets issued by the US military to unsuspecting Native Americans. More accurately however, Johnson’s paintings seem to be directed towards the buying and selling of ourselves within consumer culture and the warm welcome with which it greets us.
