David Hellams
Symbolism is a school of art that allows ideas to disguise themselves as objects. The point seems to be to figure out which ideas are hiding in the guns, which in the roses.
I employ symbols as a prank – not so much a prank on the viewer as a prank on the characters in my scenes. So these works are not exactly symbolic in the sense of Symbolism. I think of myself as a sort of Representational artist – a maker of representational images about the challenges of confronting and interpreting symbols.
This scheme works best when the characters are wearing uniforms or earnestly attempting to perform a task. Pranks on the job are much funnier than pranks on the playground. And when we see someone in a uniform in our daily lives, we decide based on context clues whether they are more significant as a person or a symbol.
These days interpreting symbols is a critical life-skill. Even if our bodies are matter-of-fact, most information worth gathering is tied up in symbols.
There is also a strong narrative component to these works. Pranks achieve their effect by trapping their targets in humiliating predicaments. Predicaments are like the little pieces of tape that bind narratives together, as well as the magnets that attract our sustained attention.
Pranks are means of altering, destabilizing, or otherwise abusing conventional narratives.