Chris Hagerty

Region: Northeast

My current paintings involve the interiors of shopping malls and found images of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. They are a meditation on how Americans define themselves by what they build and how they interact with their environment. To create the work, I collect visual source material and go through a process of editing, reconstruction, combination, and overlapping of the images. This activity functions as a diving rod that helps me to make comparisons and find what has value in a cultural sense. Typically, my work functions as an organization of the visual information I am exposed to.

The traditional format of painting on canvas is merely a means to an end for me. The paint surface unifies the images and ties together the sometimes-disparate visual elements in the picture. At the same time, the traditional materials satisfy an economy and ease of use for me as a creator of objects.