Clearance: The Four Horsemen

Greta Bank‘s Clearance: The Four Horsemen was inspired by mankind’s path of destruction.The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse:The False Leader, War, Famine and Plague are individually showcased within antique giltwood chairs  accompanied by matching upholstered panels. Nearly fifty separate narratives flood the panels’ Baroque patterning, using scatological metaphor taken from topical events and problems that threaten our existence. Classical iconography, merged with popular culture, plays out a number of sad truths.

In popular culture we gravitate towards style and statement to define our personalities. Democracy and consumerism allow visual language to reinvent status and class.  A carefully planned interior or the right pair of shoes can satisfy a particular sense of accomplishment, or helps negotiate social and economic constraints. People can display their existential definitions through their subtle language of personal statements.

The absurdity of human nature is rooted in the abuse of ‘otherness’. The universal struggle to define an authentic existence alienates us from all things and people we don’t immediately relate to. Our fear and lack of understanding provokes violence and hatred.  This happens between habitats, neighborhoods, nations, industries and economies. Without adaptation to a swarming dominance, there is the threat of eventual extinction; be they spiders, frogs, whales, estranged family, strange neighbors, strange skin, strange clothes, strange voices or strange gods.

This project was made possible with the generous support of the Maine Arts Commission.