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My current works are wall-mounted or hang from chains. They adopt the visual language of western road signs of a bygone era of American idealism, much like the famous Mobil gas Pegasus sign, which Warhol reinterpreted. Spare, glossy and minimal in appearance, my work strives for symbolic complexity by combining images to create layered meaning. Under the candy-colored coatings are decidedly less reverent visions of American culture. The work is suffused with nostalgia, sex and a sense of lost innocence. The prosaic is mixed with the priapic; a cowboy is skewered by a church steeple—a hint of menace comes through. |
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Philip Simmons
My current works are wall-mounted or hang from chains. They adopt the visual language of western road signs of a bygone era of American idealism, much like the famous Mobil gas Pegasus sign, which Warhol reinterpreted. Spare, glossy and minimal in appearance, my work strives for symbolic complexity by combining images to create layered meaning.
Under the candy-colored coatings are decidedly less reverent visions of American culture. The work is suffused with nostalgia, sex and a sense of lost innocence. The prosaic is mixed with the priapic; a cowboy is skewered by a church steeple—a hint of menace comes through.
Silhouettes are iconic and symbolic by nature. In many of these works, the interior image reveals an unexpected facet of the outer image. Much of the specific information that was part of the original drawing or photograph is deleted, leaving only an outline to be filled in by the viewer’s imagination.
The pieces present a highly finished surface much like a media personality facing an audience. This seeming completeness is in opposition to the open-endedness of the conceptual content. I develop for graphic solutions for difficult to reconcile ideas. Opposing forces are forced into unity by physical proximity. Tangential connections are found for things not usually seen as related. Clichés are reinvigorated through unlikely associations. The sealed surface does not allow the viewer into the piece. This distances the viewer, not allowing them into the fantasy. In spite of the familiarity of what is depicted, these are very personal scenarios.
I am interested in deconstructing the meaning of cultural icons. Icons typically represent a particular set of assumptions, beliefs and ideas. I think there is great value in shaking the tree of conventional culture to see what falls out. In the case of the cowboy, idealized notions of American-ness—freedom, self reliance, hard work, independence, manliness, strength, toughness, moral simplicity, justice and honor. The image of the cowboy continues to resonate throughout the world, absorbing unorthodox ideas into its meaning.
The work contains conundrums and dirty jokes. Bold graphic images assail the viewer with coded messages. Part of the game is figuring out what is being depicted, then realization comes about a possible meaning; sex, violence and the untamed natural landscape. These are the components that make up the cowboy myth.
The cowboy exists in an idealized, natural landscape. The beauty and vastness of that pristine world is accentuated in movies and images by the solitary figure on a horse—man united with nature. In my work, the landscape can be implied, as in Bull and Dancer, overt as in Fertile or metaphorical like the figure in Sleeping Beauty where the body is a metaphor for the world. The opposite of the ideal natural landscape is captured in pieces like Anxious and Flying, where anxiety over environmental destruction and the tension of living in an urban setting dominate.
In addition to being a critique of American culture, my work is also an examination of my own American-ness and a way of exploring my relationship to American culture. What are my feelings about the American dream or myth? It is a very attractive idea—represented by the lone cowboy in the landscape, resolute, strong and principled. What aspects are true? Were any ever true? Current events have driven this internal dialogue
