Mixed media on wood
104cm X 75cm (41″ X 29″)

It’s about a guy who falls off a skyscraper. On his way past each floor he keeps telling himself,
So far so good…
So far so good…
So far so good…

La Haine

King David is the Old Testament fusion of Alexander the Great and Jim Morrison, warrior and poet. As a child his aplomb against the giant Goliath left me breathless, armed with only five smooth stones and a sling. Boy could talk some trash, too.

Caravaggio’s David with the head of Goliath horrified me as a child. Now I know the subject of the head of Goliath was Caravaggio’s own face, painted with particular malice.

When I first viewed Claude Vignon’s David with the Head of Goliath at the Blanton Museum I was struck by the effeminate disinterest of his version of David. Surely, a clever musician who just happened to be very skilled with the sling.

Later, when I viewed the pic of Khaled Sharrouf’s young son holding the head of a Syrian soldier in Raqqa Syria, the romance of the myth was destroyed in an instant.

Included in Jusqu’ici Tout Va Bien are Naftali Fraenkel, Gilad Shaer and Eyal Yifrah, three Israeli teenagers kidnapped and murdered on June 12, 2014, as well as Mohamed Abu Khdeir, the Palestinian boy who was burned alive in retaliation. Images of the Holocaust are mingled with the images of the Israel-Gaza conflict.

The title, Jusqu’ici Tout Va Bien (so far, so good), was taken from the film La Haine (Hate) and seemed the perfect mantra for every violent escalation in a never ending conflict.