Harry Baxter | Chimpanzee Politics, 2022
56 x 76 cm
Edition of 17
Harry Baxter is an artist who creates images that explore the social narratives of being a human. As the planet's most dominant species we have evolved to enjoy a monopoly over all of the world's creatures and natural resources. Never has there been a time in history where our influence, and our understanding of it, has been so crucial. Modern science has proven we share genetic code with both the great apes and the humble fruit fly. We share so much common ancestry with the natural world, yet we actively choose to distance ourselves from it. When we do engage with it, we do so on our own terms; sculpting and manicuring it to suit our needs. It is this tension which is captured in Baxter's work. The tension between nature and humanity, tradition and technology, religion and science. It occupies the space between comedy and tragedy, taking parts from both but aligning itself to neither. Images are composed of the familiar and the enigmatic, ransacked from our rich visual heritage. Imagery taken from popular culture, fine art or advertising is then reconstructed with the intent of creating a familiar atmosphere into which subversion is subtly injected. There is a proportion of the work that could be described as belonging to the 'Singerie' genre, a tradition which dates back to the Sixteenth Century, depicting apes and monkeys engaging in anthropomorphic behaviour as a form of social satire.
