Thinking about the parameters of photography and specifically photojournalism and picking up on my recent visit to Tate Modern to see Wilhelm Sasnal’s Gaddafi series of paintings made me look at very recent world news stories and came across a photograph taken in Hong Kong of the current protests also known as the Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill movement. An ongoing series of demonstrations which were triggered by the introduction of the fugitive offenders amendment bill by the Hong Kong government.
This photograph caught my attention partly from an aesthetic point of view, the shapes and colours together with the strong vertical lines but also the human nature of the image. These protesters, largely students, are fighting for a fundamental human right which is threatened to be taken away from them, they are defending themselves against an armed and highly trained national army with nothing but umbrellas workman’s hard hats and sticks.
I decided to represent this photograph as a semi-abstract painting, again partly for its aesthetics but also in showing my allegiance with their cause. The painting measures 60x60cm and is an oil on canvas. The canvas in fact is an old one I previously used a couple of years ago, it was an abstract geometric form in yellows with gold and silver leaf embellishments. The new image does in parts pay homage to this painting by way of allowing part of the underlying ‘grid’ to show through representing the firm grid of oppression and the bars that seek to keep the country under surveillance and control. Also flecks of the gold leaf appear as a reminder of both the light of truth but also the cost of capitalism.
Michael Palmer 