Bruce Hiles, Terrible Tree, 2017, digital pigment print
I made this image on the day of the T***p inauguration. The intent therefore is a bit different from my typical approach — more like designing a poster. It is a depressing, negative image: lights are dark, darks are light, like a horror-movie upside-down world where the villain is lit from a flashlight below. Doomed by his sociopathic narcissism, the authoritarian repeats history. The tree is mirrored to show that disheartening repetition and its consequences. The mirroring creates a central totem of what seems like random patterns, but our built-in pareidolia turns them into the distorted, jaded, disillusioning, and sycophantic faces of dis-spirit animals.
Bruce Hiles, Hole, Huntsville, Alabama, 2017, digital pigment print
Bruce Hiles, Kudzu Cabin, Butler, Tennessee, 2017, digital pigment print
Bruce Hiles, Lumberyard 2, Huntsville, Alabama, 2017, digital pigment print
Bruce Hiles, MC and Pole, Nashville, Tennessee, 2017, digital pigment print
Bruce Hiles, Pile and Overpass, Nashville, Tennessee, 2017, digital pigment print
Bruce Hiles, Rocks and Fence, Nashville, Tennessee, 2017, digital pigment print
Bruce Hiles, Discards, Madison, Alabama, 2017, digital pigment print