'Look Around'
Andrew Stones 2025.
Drawing, square format.
One of a series of jagged, graphic icons for a culture of looking, or looking away.
Each drawing features a solid white motif with a strong black outline, bearing one or two thick-lidded human eyes, also in black outline. In each case the main motif almost fills the picture frame, allowing only a glimpse of a background suggestive of a sky or landscape filled with fire and churning, sooty smoke.
In 'Look Around' the main motif is like a super-bold, claw-like letter 'C', rough-hewn out of straight lines, positioned on its 'back' with the opening between its almost-touching extremities uppermost. At diametrically opposite positions on this claw are two human eyes, their gaze directed into the central area framed by the claw: a background of vaporous, fiery red and sooty black.
As with other works in the series the drawing style is akin to comic-book drawing, with no sketchiness or ambiguity of line or fill. The contrast between a bold, main motif, and a dynamic, fiery background recalls the comic-art depiction of a 'solid' or heroic figure, striking a singular stance in some instance of war, conflict or conflagration.
The central, claw-like figure of 'Look Around' might be an icon for deliberate or performative circumspection, perhaps as an alternative to direct involvement in some chaos unfolding further away.
โLook Aroundโ
Drawing 2025.
W/alt text.
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