TIN DRUM (2009)
35x50cm, Silkscreens
DEDICATED TO JILL WEBSTER
One of Davies' conceptual strengths is his ability to depict humanity's deft hand at meting out destruction. Günter Grass' The Tin Drum is considered one of the great literary works of the twentieth century. Davies found compelling its depiction of life during wartime and it became the impetus for this series. He focuses on the main character, Oskar, a genius in the body of a dwarf who willed himself to stop growing at age three purely by the power of his mind. He ages but remains the size of a three year old, and the reader is privy to his thoughts. We hear (read) his thoughts, desires, and will to power despite his deceptive small frame and innocent-looking face. Oskar uses the drum as his voice in the loudness and horror of his war-torn world. His first sexual experiences and subsequent affairs are all fickle and complicated; all the while the tin drum is the only constant in his life. He joins a jazz band comprised of dwarves. He replaces each tired drum with another and guards it vehemently. It is an unusual story and surely depicts some of the stranger-than-fiction collateral damage of war.
Davies silkscreened works are deceptively colourful, just as Oskar is deceptively sweet and innocent. His use of bright colour alludes to the grotesque, carnivalesque nature of war. The subject matter, so dire, is softened purely by colour, despite the long-term damage to Oskar's psyche and that of the entire nation of Germany under Nazi rule.
"Thus my task was destruction"
Oskar Mtzerath
Davies silkscreened works are deceptively colourful, just as Oskar is deceptively sweet and innocent. His use of bright colour alludes to the grotesque, carnivalesque nature of war. The subject matter, so dire, is softened purely by colour, despite the long-term damage to Oskar's psyche and that of the entire nation of Germany under Nazi rule.
"Thus my task was destruction"
Oskar Mtzerath
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