Andrew Maughan The Great Divide

About

Maughan’s slice through the signifying tropes and coda of America (as landscape, political machine, and idea) is only so that he can reveal just how hairy the journey is and how futile the destination (and our desire for it) ultimately proves to be. His compositional recipe, not unlike Warhol’s determination for seriality, remains steadfast as Maughan’s body of work narrates our shared journey to the abyss of absurdity: a space where notions of aggressor and victim; hope and fear become oblique. The mountainous landscape and the eventide gloaming inspiring awe and cliché in equal measure. The road always ahead yet always diminishing. The gloved hand (an image purloined from a thousand horror movies) casually clutching the steering wheel but not without a whiff of leathery menace.  And the Great Assassin’s eyes, literally lacerated from the canvas, haunting the viewer as Hitchcockian reflections in a rear-view mirror.

Matt Carey-Williams - A Road to Nowhere (extract)