Armed Away 2014

Curator: Woah, it hits you, doesn't it? This vibrancy—a world of flattened forms and intense color. Editor: Precisely. What we are looking at is KAWS’s “Armed Away,” created in 2014. It’s a strong example of his painting, rendered in acrylic on canvas, a powerful reflection of pop-art influence. Curator: You can really feel that Pop influence; it's almost like a deconstructed cartoon landscape. My immediate thought is: sensory overload! There’s so much to absorb, it makes your eyes dance. It feels playful, but also slightly…fragmented, maybe? Editor: "Fragmented" is key. KAWS often dissects familiar images, those iconic cartoon characters, then reconstitutes them into something simultaneously recognizable and alien. The deconstruction comments on how saturated our visual landscape has become, blurring the boundaries of originality and appropriation. Curator: The composition—it's so jammed, though. Almost claustrophobic. The bright hues clash wonderfully; like the bold reds pushing against those brooding blues. It's visually unsettling, which I strangely enjoy. Does this piece fit into KAWS’ usual wheelhouse? Editor: Very much so. It showcases his key motifs: the abstracted cartoon figures with crossed-out eyes and skewed geometries, those familiar yet estranged icons of consumer culture, a critique of contemporary culture, touching on themes of commercialization, identity, and loss, all couched in that exuberant Pop aesthetic. It encourages a conversation about how we engage with, internalize, and subsequently deconstruct visual languages that permeate our lives. Curator: Right. There's this tension, that friction between familiarity and the distorted unknown, a playful and haunting quality all at once. Almost childlike but sophisticated, in a street-art savvy kind of way. What do you think he's “arming away” exactly? Is it childhood, innocence? Editor: Perhaps the very notion of unadulterated experience, where memory and imagination are filtered through a media-saturated lens, creating simulacra. So, “arming away” could represent distancing oneself from pure emotions and thoughts, influenced and even tainted by the collective imagery around us. Curator: Well said. For me, “Armed Away” acts as a reminder that even within this chaos, you might find strange comfort. There’s a bold vulnerability to the mash-up of vibrant colours, a bit like stumbling into your most vivid memories, all scrambled, asking for attention. Editor: Indeed. It highlights the complex interplay between personal and cultural identity, urging us to acknowledge our mediated realities. Thank you.