Artist Statement
Howard Penning focussed on painting for a number of years after
graduating from the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in 1991. By
2000 he had grown dissatisfied with paint alone, and began
experimenting with other materials. This led to a series of striking low
relief, mixed media sculptural paintings . His work focuses on social
groups and hierarchies from childhood to adulthood and the group
behaviours that go with them.
The Hollow Men
In his latest series of work Howard has used T. S. Eliot's poem "The
Hollow Men" as a jumping off point to explore his own ideas around the
corporate business world. The poem seems to be an almost perfect
metaphor for the modern corporate world. The business suit becomes
the symbol of a hollow man, the red "power tie" becomes a fatal gash..
Individual personalities and voices become lost in a larger corporate
identity. As the corporate world view pushes the planet closer to social,
economic and environmental collapse where are the individuals who
make up corporations left? Can their lives be reconciled with their jobs
or do they become hollow "yes men"?
graduating from the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in 1991. By
2000 he had grown dissatisfied with paint alone, and began
experimenting with other materials. This led to a series of striking low
relief, mixed media sculptural paintings . His work focuses on social
groups and hierarchies from childhood to adulthood and the group
behaviours that go with them.
The Hollow Men
In his latest series of work Howard has used T. S. Eliot's poem "The
Hollow Men" as a jumping off point to explore his own ideas around the
corporate business world. The poem seems to be an almost perfect
metaphor for the modern corporate world. The business suit becomes
the symbol of a hollow man, the red "power tie" becomes a fatal gash..
Individual personalities and voices become lost in a larger corporate
identity. As the corporate world view pushes the planet closer to social,
economic and environmental collapse where are the individuals who
make up corporations left? Can their lives be reconciled with their jobs
or do they become hollow "yes men"?
The Hollow Men
We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats' feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar
Shape without form, shade without colour,
Paralysed force, gesture without motion;
Those who have crossed
With direct eyes, to death's other Kingdom
Remember us ‑‑ if at all ‑‑ not as lost
Violent souls, but only
As the hollow men
The stuffed men.
T. S. Eliot(1925)
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