100+ Hanks

From Rhizome Artbase
Paul McLean
2006
Description

About 5 years ago, I was invited to submit work to a designer/consultant putting together a collection for Loews Vanderbilt Hotel in Nashville. They wanted Opry-ish stuff. I went to Opry website & lifted a 5k or so thumbnail of Hank & used it to build some digi-paintings. Fast-forward to fall 06. I came across my sketches of Hank while building a Flickr archive. For a while now I've been exploring the reconstitution of digital/photographic/painted images starting at the pixel root. This project dovetailed into print work that I'm doing now focused on optic affects experienced by the viewer, depending on POV & distance from the printed object. The choice of image was influenced of course by Wahol, the techniques used to build the image by C Close/R Lichtenstein (Macro) and J Albers/P Mondrian (Micro) & others. This is the first stage of an installation project. Each frame of the slideshow can be output for exhibition in sequence or as wallpaper. The sequence can easily be converted to a QT movie for projection and/or monitor presentation. I invited Adam Cotton to write a sequence of Hank interpretations based on a single riff from one of Hank's songs. I suggested he listen to the Neil Young soundtrack for "Dead Man" and the Lynchian soundtracks, especially "Twin Peaks". An expanded version will be produced for the installation. Hank died about 20 miles from my hometown. I'm thinking of how an iconic image translates at 4k, repititive dosing of icon, & popular myth. & Ghosts of icons.

Paul McLean
25 December 2006
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