GEORGE TOWN, Oct 25 — Not everything floating through Thomas Powell’s beautifully painted blue skies is a cloud.
There are fruits, or smooth round porcelain "balloons" that essentially represent bombs.
In one large piece, what appears to be a red and white striped tent is flying against the blue sky with plumes of dark clouds, or possibly smoke with a bright flash under it.
In one corner sits a "survivalist" with his water containers and empty tins of food but there is one problem... he did not survive as he’s a skeleton.
There is also another set of paintings with similar aesthetics to the blue skies and puffy clouds series but featuring skulls instead.
Powell’s exhibition, Up In The Air, serves up more than a reminder of days with clear skies and clean air as the paintings and installations raise questions about what humans are doing to the Earth.
“I’m always trying to paint stuff that’s aesthetically pleasing and that, you know, is enjoyable to look at, but then hopefully help people take time out and question things,” Powell told Malay Mail recently.
The title leaves him plenty of room to manoeuvre.
“Up in the air can mean many things,” he added. For Powell, it encompasses the uncertainty surrounding the world’s climate, politics and economy, as well as the objects suspended in his painted skies.
“So for me, life at the minute feels very up in the air,” he said.
Powell’s largest work in the exhibition has a starting point that reaches back more than a century with his reinterpretation of The Allegory of Satan, also known as Lord of the World, a 1900 oil painting by Polish artist, writer and historian Ludwik Stasiak.
Powell’s reinterpretation brings the older painting’s enthroned figure, coins and skulls into a contemporary setting with changes to some of the details.
“So I’m doing a modernised version of this same painting, based on the situation humanity finds itself in today,” he explained.
The new occupant has acquired some formidable furniture where the central figure sits on a throne that looks like it was made from a combination of large-caliber ammunition and a tank.
“Rather than a throne, he’s sat on, like, some tank-like device,” Powell said.
An aircraft releasing flares supplies a wing-like shape, while an eagle, stars and the figure’s red and white striped clothing add further clues for viewers to consider.
“He is the love of money. He is the representation of the failing of those in positions of power that could do good, but don’t, because somewhere down the line, something becomes more valuable to them,” he said.
The question of who gets to direct that power runs through the exhibition.
“What is money? Money is potential energy. And they get to decide what it’s spent on,” he said.
At the figure’s feet, the skulls give the painting a longer historical perspective.
Powell points to civilisations that once appeared established and enduring.
“That’s what the skulls represent, that have failed through one reason or another,” he said.
His interest in history feeds into the way he reads the present and recent news of what is going around the world gave him the concept to paint the whole series for the exhibition in two months.
“We seem to create structures and systems that almost always get eroded and spoiled because of greed, because of power-hungry people, until eventually they get in positions where they get to decide what is done with the world and the resources that we’ve got,” he said.
Still, he leaves room for viewers to consider their own place in those systems.
“I’m not interested in, like, pointing fingers, saying, ‘It’s your fault, it’s your fault’, I just want to throw this out there and let viewers form their own opinions,” he said.
For Powell, the opportunity cost is central.
“In reality, it’s spending money on wars instead of planting food, instead of planting trees, instead of building systems that produce clean water or solar, wind, just sensible stuff,” he said.
That wider argument also explains why a Malaysian visitor’s first association with the exhibition might only tell part of the story.
Haze may be familiar enough to spring immediately to mind, but Powell’s concerns extend beyond a smog-filled sky.
“It’s not about the haze. It’s because the haze is just one manifestation of this broader problem of profit over everything else, of power over everything else. The haze is just one version of that,” he said.
What frustrates him is the gap between what people are capable of doing and the decisions that follow.
“We’ve got the manpower, the resources, the technology, and the need to, like, use that stuff sensibly, and yet we’re still doing the same thing,” he said.
For all these weighty concerns, Powell also makes room for a bleak little joke.
Enter the survivalist, equipped with water containers and food tins, yet conspicuously lacking a pulse.
“So this skeleton is going to be one of the props, sort of this little apocalyptic scene. But again, it’s more of a parody,” he said about the installation.
“The idea is that this guy is there on his own with his water containers and empty tins of food, and he’s prepped, but he still didn’t make it,” he added.
His explanation gives the unfortunate character a purpose beyond providing visitors with a macabre installation, that is humanity cannot survive without working together.
“You can’t survive this place on your own. You need community, you need friends, we need to work together,” he said.
Up In The Air is to the public from October 17 until December 6
Cultprint,
Opening hours are from noon to 7pm from Fridays to Sundays.
For details, visit www.cultprint.co or call +60 11-1608 9935.
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