top of page

From the outset and in line with the title, Playing Victim challenges the descriptive associations tied to both darkness and lightness, and how light and lightness tend to be positioned as antithetical to malice or negative outcome. The full piece plays with deception, particularly via tone and the presentation of character. 

 

Whilst the proportions of the piece are split into three, the character in the right two thirds is posited at the forefront, being the first arena for deception. Whilst initially we may perceive this as a single character, its mangled bodily perimeters and the shadow like figure in its periphery produce a confused sense of both disconnect and indistinguishability. 

 

This, I believe is intentionally misleading encouraging us to consider whether or not these are compartmentalised parts of one entity. Since the ‘shadow’ does not coincide with the silhouette of the central figure it may allude to the presence of more than one vessel, thus opening up the space to explore the titles’ mention of misled victimhood. 

 

There is assumed malevolence in both the expression of the central figure and in the ambiguity of the black mass and whilst we cannot be sure whether this is a living organism, its contours and slight opacity could easily suggest hostility. However, the focal character although brighter and lighter in tone and colour may not very well be a victim of the mass it seems to entangled with. 

 

As we know predators tend to hide in plain sight; and i believe this is what Detroit has managed to present here; he encourages his audience to look and think twice, to question their preconceptions and challenge the direction that our psychological pathways take when coming to definite conclusions.

Playing Victim

£35.00Price
  • Print of "Playing Victim" artwork.

PARASITEWITHIN

  • alt.text.label.Instagram

©2023 by PARASITEWITHIN.

bottom of page