He’s not trying to glorify but to warn – and to nudge us to reflect on why, and why now.
That’s what artist David Haughton says about his new exhibition Angry White Men 2 – Further Explorations of the Face of Evil. The New Westminster artist is exhibiting his work from March 14 to 27 at the Visual Space Gallery in Vancouver.
The exhibition includes a series of provocative portraits of neo-Nazis, Trump supporters “and a wide world of disenfranchised, resentful and angry people,” a press release says.
The images come from news photos in the U.S., France, Hungary, Poland, England and Sweden, and the paintings work to convey the danger posed by these “angry white men” who are a symptom of a greater evil.
“Everywhere I look in the news of the world, I see angry white men,” Haughton says in the release. “Their towns have been hollowed out by the closing of factories or mines. The work done by their parents for a decent wage is now done abroad, and by machines and robots. Their insecurities are shaped into weapons by demagogues who blame the people who aren’t like them: immigrants, elites, liberals, democrats.”
Haughton says that as he paints these angry white men, he feels his own reactions of revulsion and righteous indignation.
“I must force myself to feel curiosity as to ‘why?’ and ‘why now?’ – to recognize their humanity,” he says. “I also have an uneasy suspicion that, given the right combination of frustration, desperation and fear, I might look like them. We may all have bred in our bones a capacity and instinct for suspicion and violence towards strangers who look different, talk a strange language and compete for the same resources.”
You can find out more about Haughton at www.haughton-art.ca.
Visual Space Gallery is at 3352 Dunbar St. The exhibition is open noon to 5 p.m. daily.
