Inkjet Print on Paper
80 x 70 cm
Edition of 45
Alvaro Barrington’s print edition is divided into two versions, one of which features the words ‘Spider the Pig’, and the other ‘Pig the Spider’. Together they reveal the title of the artist’s 2021 exhibition at the SLG: Spider the Pig, Pig the Spider. This play on mutation and inter-changeability is continued through the visual composition of the prints. Multiple images of the artist’s hand and forearm are overlaid with digitally rendered line drawings of spiders’ legs and pigs’ trotters in reference to the characters introduced in the title. These are superimposed onto a backdrop merging elements from the video game, Grand Theft Auto with Barrington’s photo of a nasturtium flower and leaf at a community garden near his studio. Two of the five distinctive arm gestures are based on George Orwell’s Animal Farm: one is a sign akin to the Hitler salute made by the main character– a pig called Napoleon, and another mimics the threateningly clench–fisted arms at the sides of all the pigs at the moment when they start to wear suits. A contrastingly gentle caress by Grandma Pig in the children’s cartoon Peppa Pig is the source of the third gesture, alongside another inspired by the strength and flexibility of the legs in the towering bronze sculptures of spiders by Louise Bourgeois. The remaining two hand signs are from Barrington’s own version of the African folktale of Anansi the Spider, into which he introduces the Black Power fist and the pointing finger of God from Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam on the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Alvaro Barrington (b. 1983 Caracas, Venezuela) is the child of Grenadian and Haitian migrant workers and was raised between the Caribbean and New York. Barrington’s practice explores interconnected histories of cultural production. Considering himself primarily a painter, his multimedia approach to image–making employs burlap, textiles, postcards, clothing and cast concrete exploring how such diverse materials can function as visual tools while referencing personal, political and commercial histories. Through this confluence of materials and subject matter Barrington engages histories of music and painting associated with the Caribbean, the socio–political context of his childhood in 1980s New York, and London where he is currently based.
This artwork is available through South London Gallery
Inkjet Print on Paper
80 x 70 cm
Edition of 45
Alvaro Barrington’s print edition is divided into two versions, one of which features the words ‘Spider the Pig’, and the other ‘Pig the Spider’. Together they reveal the title of the artist’s 2021 exhibition at the SLG: Spider the Pig, Pig the Spider. This play on mutation and inter-changeability is continued through the visual composition of the prints. Multiple images of the artist’s hand and forearm are overlaid with digitally rendered line drawings of spiders’ legs and pigs’ trotters in reference to the characters introduced in the title. These are superimposed onto a backdrop merging elements from the video game, Grand Theft Auto with Barrington’s photo of a nasturtium flower and leaf at a community garden near his studio. Two of the five distinctive arm gestures are based on George Orwell’s Animal Farm: one is a sign akin to the Hitler salute made by the main character– a pig called Napoleon, and another mimics the threateningly clench–fisted arms at the sides of all the pigs at the moment when they start to wear suits. A contrastingly gentle caress by Grandma Pig in the children’s cartoon Peppa Pig is the source of the third gesture, alongside another inspired by the strength and flexibility of the legs in the towering bronze sculptures of spiders by Louise Bourgeois. The remaining two hand signs are from Barrington’s own version of the African folktale of Anansi the Spider, into which he introduces the Black Power fist and the pointing finger of God from Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam on the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Alvaro Barrington (b. 1983 Caracas, Venezuela) is the child of Grenadian and Haitian migrant workers and was raised between the Caribbean and New York. Barrington’s practice explores interconnected histories of cultural production. Considering himself primarily a painter, his multimedia approach to image–making employs burlap, textiles, postcards, clothing and cast concrete exploring how such diverse materials can function as visual tools while referencing personal, political and commercial histories. Through this confluence of materials and subject matter Barrington engages histories of music and painting associated with the Caribbean, the socio–political context of his childhood in 1980s New York, and London where he is currently based.
This artwork is available through South London Gallery
