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Subversion
Ben Cove’s work continues this play with images of pop culture. Several works in Tilted use images taken from Superman comic books. Cove’s use of the imagery found in Superman is entirely ironic. He subverts the conventional understanding of Superman as the upholder of traditional American values. Cove presents the viewer with this familiar borrowed imagery, with its friendly veneer of nostalgia, in ‘fun’ colours. The paintings could be celebrating popular culture and western ideals. Yet on closer study the paintings reveal disconcerting images that allude to another version of the world, particularly in relation to the iconic figure of Superman.
In Superman’s First Love (2001), the artist presents the image of the character Lori, Superman’s girlfriend in the early comic books, who is a mermaid and uses a wheelchair when on land. The viewer may then make the association to the actor Christopher Reeves (star of the Superman films) who ironically has himself been paralysed in an accident and now uses a wheelchair. Reeves’ fall is also referred to in Superman-Icarus (2001), where Superman has himself fallen.
Cove subtly subverts dominant western ideology, particularly in relation to the notion of the disabled person as ‘Other’ or the belief that disabled people are not the same as ‘us’ - they must be treated differently, excluded.
New Commissions
In Cove’s recently commissioned work, he looks further afield to begin to question other western ideological beliefs. Whitey on the Moon (2002) could be seen as an interrogation of American imperialism. Cove wryly critiques dominant attitudes and the beliefs that support them under the guise of easy to access, beautiful and well-composed graphic paintings.
Process and Practice
Cove not only uses image content to question and undermine prevailing ideologies and
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