CNN and 19th century painting through the eye of a schizophrenic ether addicted bus driver wearing bowling shoes and about to steamroll past the do not pass area and do a cliff-dive while the retarded kids sing the wheels on the bus go roun roun roun and he, with six seconds left in his life, trying to rub the mosquito bite under his eye.
Historical war paintings as a science: how many, where when. The scientific aspect only becomes significant when the painting has everything confused. The repetitive faces of the combatants, the crouch of one rifleman aiming squarely at the first of a helicopter gunship battalion, the face of Christ as a ridiculous mask - war is an exercise in irony, from El Salvador to Gibraltar.
This type of painting has some resemblance to Virtual Reality, if time had stopped. Peter Halley writes, 'the use of Virtual Reality by artist does seem, at present, to serve some concrete, definable purpose, ironically not dissimilar to the way it is used by the military. Both artists and military planners employ virtual reality as an experimental space, a space in which ideas can be tested without real-world constraints. Both groups are also able to experiment with the use of Virtual Reality without regard for the viability of its commercial potential.
Arms Dealer Soap Opera
Scenes from a Schizophrenic Present
Helicopter gun-ships unleashing scorpion stinger missiles on Beirut's tourist hotels and F-16's dousing Napoleon era French Legionnaires with Tomahawk missiles is not fair, but was is seldom fair. Cyril is not particularly fond of fairness in his paintings, as the gruesome parade of history solemnly gerrymandered in favor of French flag baring Hessians and helicopters slamming the shore for a beachfront attack to the anthem of 'Flight of the Bumblebee'.
