Robert Frankle

Description

Icons of the Times transmutes simple objects that have become in one way or another iconic of contemporary times into aesthetic objects and in doing so reveals visually aspects of their nature.

The work was prefigured by the American flag that announced the performance Conversing in Colored Cloth and the Mueller Report. Further images were made during the COVID-19 pandemic.

For example, the Mueller Report transmutes the Mueller Report, both as an investigation and as a physical manifestation, the report itself, into an aesthetic object and in doing so reveals visually aspects of their nature. In the act of photographing the report's physical manifestation with a neutral black background, it becomes an aesthetic object. The two parts of the image reveal 1) physically how large the report is, much like a long novel, and 2) how heavily censured it is. The Americans, whether it be the political leadership who has elected to obfuscate, the political opposition, or the press, have chosen to collude in describing this censorship as 'redaction'. 'Redaction' normally means 'editing for the purpose of publication'. This hardly describes the act of blackening out numerous pages of passages. The image serves to visually reveal the extreme extent of censorship that has taken place, only superficially disguised in Orwellian terms by calling it 'redaction'.

Bleach references President Trump's notorious April 2020 comment that people could successfully self-help treat COVID-19 simply by drinking bleach. It didn't take long for some people to foolishly attempt just that along with all of the predictable consequences. One of all too many dystopic moments during the coronavirus pandemic. Other pandemic related imaged include a face mask and a special band-aid intended to promote COVID-19 vaccination.