industrial [r]evolution

i finished up the mural at matchBOX yesterday afternoon, adding in the final images, including the guy on his cell phone.  i titled it 'industrial [r]evolution'.  i worked around themes of old industry, new industry/technology, and downtown.  the painting is a stencil and freehand collage of images that depict the conglomerate that is midwestern urban industry.  check out the video for a 2 minute run through the 16 hours it took me to complete this mural.

the workers image below is taken from diego rivera's detroit industry mural.  i painted it in a different style than much of the rest of the painting, meant to reflect rivera's style, and the style depicted throughout many of the WPA murals from the 30s and 40s.  i used this image as a metaphor for the human-powered strength of american industry past.

the guy on the cell phone.  a common observation from daily life.  surely, if industry is going to progress, it will be including some form of handheld communication device.

a row of buildings and smoking factories in the background meant to represent lafayette (or any industry-driven midwestern town)

gears and hydraulic assembly line robots with a motor in the background representing the melding of old machinery and new tech.

i always carry over a lot of imagery from previous work.  the gears, crane hook, pulleys and motors are from the robots on n river rd.  the cell phone guy is a nod at 3rd and romig.  as are the birds which are also in the attica mural along with the damask pattern that's in the background.  the brick, the assembly line robots, and the diego rivera, are all new stencils.  the flying birds have shown up on a lot of my assemblage work, as have the pink flower pattern and the row buildings and factories.  the diamond plate shows up in the robots on n. river rd and also at cross fit west lafayette.  print collage and repeatable imagery is great way to present the jumbled, often meandering, narratives of contemporary life.