BUTWA II 2009

Cameron Platter made this artwork, Butwa II, and it dives headfirst into a world of pattern and repetition that’s almost dizzying. It feels like Platter starts with a basic form, like a diamond or a figure, and then just keeps going, almost obsessively. The high contrast of black and white is softened with the fried chicken hue of the figure's hair, and the skin of the figure. There's also the contrast between the cartoonish figures and the slightly more detailed rendering of the central figure. The flatness of the image, combined with the repeating figures, flattens and complicates the space so that it is difficult to know what is near or far in the pictorial space. The work is a visual feast, forcing us to confront the chaos and excess of contemporary life. I’m reminded of someone like Peter Saul, who also isn’t afraid to mix the grotesque with the mundane, creating images that are as disturbing as they are darkly funny. Art isn't about answers, it's about keeping the conversation going.