Ian Bunn | Political & Popular Culture Arts

Zine El Abidine Ben Ali the 74 year old President of Tunisian Republic for the past 23 years had been re-elected with enormous majorities at every election, although his authoritarian regime was often criticized internationally for failing to observe international standards of political and human rights. Leaked US diplomatic cables on the WikiLeaks site described his regime as “The Family who have their hands in every cookie jar in the entire economy.”  The WikiLeaks revelations appear to have confirmed to the Tunisians their fears, providing the catalyst for protest the pace of which was fueled by Twitter engagements. Ali resigned the presidency as his grip of power rapidly waned and the army surrounded his Presidential Palace in Tunis. Fearing retribution Ali and close family fled in helicopters for Malta and sanctuary in Saudi Arabia.

Inspired by Martin Varsavsky ow.ly/3Iggb and Elizabeth Dickinson ow.ly/3IgfW Image source ow.ly/3IhEr

Claims he was victim of a gross injustice (December 16th)

Sir Michael Somare the 74 year old prime minister of Papua New Guinea has voluntarily stepped down over allegations relating to personal financial statements with a leadership tribunal set up to evaluate the official misconduct allegations against him. Political turmoil had intensified within the Papua New Guinea government following several key events in recent days, culminating from the country’s supreme court ruling that the governor-general’s election was invalid, and a cabinet reshuffle that ousted Somare’s deputy Don Polye. Polye and his followers are now tipped to join the opposition in a no-confidence motion likely to topple the government at a time when there is no valid governor general.

Inspired by Liam Fox at ABC News http://ow.ly/3rq0s

Political Arts | Ian Bunn Visual Artist

My digital art work is essentially politics and art. It’s about iconic people, places and events of our day.  Recorded visually through daily compilations of manipulated digital images, posted online and disseminated via online media and social networks. The works are diaristic in nature that metaphorically record a spectator’s experience of the contemporary digital age.  The resulting work intentionally has a painterly aesthetic acknowledging my historical painting practice.

Adapting Pop Art’s notion of mass media imagery into a context of the contemporary digital age, the work draws on a myriad points of reference. Utilizing fractured images to provide an allusion to the digital noise pounding away daily into our sub consciousness.  The work is essentially popular culture arts, diverging from the traditional Pop Art notion of a pronounced repetition of a consumer icon, instead this work focuses on the deluge of contemporary digital content. The compilation of the fragmented imagery is vividly distractive, not unlike cable surfing or a jaunt through Times Square.

This digital photo manipulation art work is premised on the basis that Pop art in its beginnings, freeze-framed what consumers of popular culture experienced into iconic visual abstractions. With the advent of the techno age, visual information circulates in such quantities, so rapidly and exponentially, that to comprehend a fraction of it all becomes a kind of production process in itself.  Hence this work considers fragmented elements of Popular Culture through an artistic and conceptual exploration of specific people and events of the day.

www.ianbunn.com

He was a part of a criminal regime for 35 years (October 28th)

Tariq Aziz the 74 year old former deputy to Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi regime and it’s public face to the outside world as its foreign minister has been sentenced to hang for his role in the commission of wholesale murder. Aziz took part in a campaign to demonize the country’s political opposition, primarily the Shiite Dawa party, through a process of organized torture imprisonment and murder following an assassination attempt on Saddam Hussein in 1982. Two other co-accuseds were also sentenced to death. Aziz is a Christian and is likely to receive humanitarian intervention from the Vatican to urge the Iraqi authorities not to proceed with the death sentence.

Political Arts | Ian Bunn Visual Artist

My digital art work is essentially politics and art. It’s about iconic people, places and events of our day.  Recorded visually through daily compilations of manipulated digital images, posted online and disseminated via online media and social networks. The works are diaristic in nature that metaphorically record a spectator’s experience of the contemporary digital age.  The resulting work intentionally has a painterly aesthetic acknowledging my historical painting practice.

Adapting Pop Art’s notion of mass media imagery into a context of the contemporary digital age, the work draws on a myriad points of reference. Utilizing fractured images to provide an allusion to the digital noise pounding away daily into our sub consciousness.  The work is essentially popular culture arts, diverging from the traditional Pop Art notion of a pronounced repetition of a consumer icon, instead this work focuses on the deluge of contemporary digital content. The compilation of the fragmented imagery is vividly distractive, not unlike cable surfing or a jaunt through Times Square.

This digital photo manipulation art work is premised on the basis that Pop art in its beginnings, freeze-framed what consumers of popular culture experienced into iconic visual abstractions. With the advent of the techno age, visual information circulates in such quantities, so rapidly and exponentially, that to comprehend a fraction of it all becomes a kind of production process in itself.  Hence this work considers fragmented elements of Popular Culture through an artistic and conceptual exploration of specific people and events of the day.

www.ianbunn.com