AUGUST 4 - 19, 2006, NORTH BAY, ONTARIO, CANADA    

 image Copyright © 2006 Andrew Van Schie

My work is developing and evolving from the perspective of a slowly or never changing North American patriarchal system.

Dead Skinned Men Wrapped in Barbed Wire is a expression of this perspective. 

The act of skinning men and wrapping them in barbed wire is nihilistic in nature.  For men to change there must be an act of nihilism to their thinking and actions.  Skinning and wrapping them in barbed wire is symbolic of this mental and physical pain of changing.  This act of nihilism hopefully will cause a shift in their perspective towards the rest of society. 

Through this shift there may be some faint optimism that men will evolve in how they interact physically and mentally with women, children, and other men.

Overall, my work is not about solutions but about questions.  Questions lead to discussion and then maybe to change.