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Kim Jong Phil

I think a great deal about what it means to be an artist.

I reflect on the elaborate psychological mechanisms required to pursue something so elusive, so ambiguous. I often wonder: ‘Am I talking to myself?’

It occurred to me that being an artist is a great deal like being a dictator.

Just like a dictator, I must live in a closed loop of self-delusion. A place where my words and ideas always ring true. A gilded daydream of grandiosity. There can be no room for doubt.  I must be convinced that not only do I have something vital to say, but the world cannot wait to hear what it is.

For my palette, I’ve taken pre-existing dictatorial art-Paintings from North Korea, statues of assorted dictators (Kim Il Sung, Laurent Kabilla, and Saddam Hussein), and i’ve had these works re-created in China, as large format oil paintings and bronze sculpture. In each instance, I’ve replaced the great leaders with myself.

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