GA Gardner

We are often exposed to dazzling amounts of print media in our daily lives. Many of us are engulfed by this information, from which it is almost impossible to unplug or tune out. This continuous stream of media is alluring, powerful, and even seductive to most but often not inclusive of diverse cultures; placing popular news over more important issues.

Through the lens of his Caribbean heritage, GA Gardner's work uses the media content to create an intimate viewpoint of his intercultural experience. He dissects, covers up, reveals, layers, and re-contextualizes the material in the print publications he uses, to construct pieces that specifically discuss issues of politics, race, culture, and identity.

The publications are a natural fit for Gardner, as they offer random vibrant color pallets, much like that of a typical Caribbean environment, and a great mixture of text and professionally photographed images. However the colors are universal and allow a conceptual approach to finding the common ground among all cultures. The artist combines these media depictions and information with natural paper and synthetic materials to aid in his message.  By deconstructing the images into strips, or bits of torn paper, and assigning new overlays of unifying colors to the materials, Gardner erodes the original content at various levels often reducing them to shades with traces of random colors. He also incorporates urban western grit, geometric African lines, contemporary images, and borrowed African and indigenous weaving techniques to create unified montage of textures.

The image that was once a bold headline, new banner, or the newest eye catching product now struggles to be seen; muted, it now plays a secondary role to layers of paint and other mediums. The resulting serendipitous visual construction is an unsystematic reconfiguration and re-purposing to discuss culture, heritage and the symbolism of color.