Aberrant Art

Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up

Pablo Picasso

The recent tendency to overcome artworks and their masters, even if still considered with some suspicion, is certainly an understandable human attempt to get rid of the heavy burden of some icons that, still today, look at us from a height always out of reach, as if, after them, nothing more “so great” could be made. So what better remedy than humanizing and updating that greatness, making fun of its names and works?

That’s what Barry Kite does, through his photo collages defined by himself as Aberrant Art.

“My work is based on found iconographic imagery from painting, photography and popular media initially via discarded books and magazines but of late: the internet. This imagery is deconstructed, then re-composed from different sources as parody with the important blending of and interpretive tension of word — via title — and image. The technique is based on using imagery as language to build context as individual words are combined to create ideas. Uncommon juxtapositions and themes are sought to provoke thought and discussion. The less common, the merrier.

A little art literacy is helpful, as many implied narratives draw on historic reactions and interpretations of various employed artists and works from their own era. Prior history with a certain painting or photograph always colors one’s interpretation. Being aware of the fact that an artist went blind or crazy or bankrupt — you know who you are — during his productive period, or that a work was once critically excoriated always adds a certain flavor. My works are narratives. The challenge is to tell a story without words: using images, colors, composition. Only the words in the title are permitted to assist, or provoke, or mislead the viewer–drawing on that part of the brain dealing with abstraction”

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