Ian Bunn | Political & Popular Culture Arts

Anna Maria Bligh the 50 year old Premier of the Australian state of Queensland, under enormous pressure resulting from the flood inundation of the state displayed a raw and emotional performance at a flood briefing. Shedding tears as a media conference Bligh called on the Queensland residents to stay strong in the face of the flood devastation, reminding them of who they are “We’re the people that they breed tough, north of the border. We’re the ones that they knock down, and we get up again.” Bligh has herself been praised for her tireless work during the natural disaster that struck her state, and for her honesty, compassion and leadership. Bligh is renown for her straight talking without the usual spin that generally accompanies politician speak.

Inspired by Paul Osbourne ow.ly/3IfPf Image source ow.ly/3IfP0

People we have a better future before us (November 23rd)

Brian Cowen the 50 year old Irish Prime Minister has sought financial assistance of almost 100billion euros from both the EU and the IMF to support the nations banking system, after publicly declaring for some time that Ireland would not be accepting a bailout of its banking sector. However widespread concern at the extent of the budget deficit has led Cowen to announce his intent to make immediate cuts of 6billion euros to the budget with 15billion euros over four years along with increases to taxation. Additional loans have also been secured from Britain and Sweden to help support the failing Irish economy.

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