I use flag-less, generic military uniforms in my paintings to express the self-destructive universally oppressive nature of military service. By taking away nationality from the uniforms I am also attempting to reassign individualist moral responsibility and consequence to the human beings wearing the clothes.
I use the black cross in my paintings as an ambiguous national symbol of pride and patriotism, an Ideology to mystify the horrible reality of war and its causes. The black cross is an anarchist symbol (search Anarchist Black Cross), by using it I am trying to realize the parallel between my own political leanings and any belief in absolute political truth, I am attempting to sacrifice my own god.
So while thinking about how to write all this I realized the following; by taking away any assigned nationality from the negative depictions of nationalist military driven society, I leave it up to the viewer to assign identity, based on his or her own negative experiences with military, be them current, cultural, or historical. I guess my paintings are like surrealist anti military Rorschach tests.
