The work: Philip Richards, CONSUME, 2021. Acrylic on board, 100 x 80cm. Courtesy: the artist.
It was a bright cold day in April, and all the clocks were striking 13. Or rather, it is a bright warm day in November, and artist Philip Richards forewarns us about the path we appear to have chosen in his work CONSUME. Based on Lord Kitchener’s iconic 1914 recruitment poster inviting young men to go to war, this work stares down at the viewer and demands obedience. “We are the possessors of technology, but sadly this comes with consequences,” says the artist. “We are on the precipice and it is time to decide which way we want to go.” Though executed in the style of a print with its monochromatic palette and harsh lines, the artist has chosen to paint this work in acrylics, a medium not nearly as easy to reproduce on a large consumer scale. In this way, the artist’s position is clear. It is a purposeful rejection of the command issued by this automaton. We are invited to gaze upon the face of what society has become and reject it, to fear it, rather than be distracted by the baubles of consumerist society. Richards crosses the uncanny valley to play with dystopian tropes of aliens and robots in order to capture our attention, forcing us to look closer at both the work and the world around us.