“Colourful” storyteller, business identity, and My First Blog journalist, Larry Pickering, has been in the news a lot recently due to his intrepid in-depth investigations into Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s distant past. While other journalists Just Ask Questions, Pickering, in his inimitable, un-suable way, Just Makes Accusations.
But what is often overlooked in the low-rent, muckraking newspaper profiles on Pickering that focus on his questionable business dealings, bankruptcy, and “colourful” feelpinions about race, is his significant body of spade-a-fucken-shovel art. So, in the name of culture and enlightenment, Limited News has decided to un-overlook it.
Larry Pickering (1942 – )
Putting Sexual Pressure on Interest Rates
Oil on canvas
From very first glance, Pickering’s work demands that we put aside our most basic pre-conceptions about the natural order of our world. One is inexorably challenged to concede that Pickering is fearless in his determination to communicate respect for women and disdain for traditional gender roles. The artist’s nuanced-yet-bold mark-making technique paints a gentle homily to the human form in its rawest state.
Larry Pickering (1942 – )
A Great Big New Tax on Odourless, Colourless Little People
Charcoal on paper
Pickering’s obvious enjoyment of shape and colour creates a window through which one is invited to engage with contemporary political debates. Far removed from the dry confines of beige parliamentary offices, these pieces compel us to consider policy at a more transcendental level. Subtle caricatures lever memories of childhood through which empathy is invoked for the common man.
Larry Pickering (1942 – )
LOL Lesbians Amirite
Watercolour on cardboard
The artist’s works burst forth with obvious application and quest, challenging us to question traditional sexual roles and the very core of the structure of liberal democracy. By tearing down the false façade of modesty demanded by the neo-modern, post-bourgeoisie élite, Pickering juxtaposes human mundanity with our most base, visceral desires.
Larry Pickering (1942 – )
Who Wears The Pants? (Number 28 in a continuing series.)
Paint by numbers
The artist’s masterful interaction of visual eloquence and playful suggestion, overlaid with a meta-interrogative layer of discursive invocation, creates evocative metaphors through which the viewer has no choice but to completely reconsider gender, sexuality, and the very core of human interaction. Larry Pickering holds a mirror up to our nation, and stares into the very soul of humanity.
