Many Geese With Spider
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Commentary
This playful image delights in incongruities, a trademark notion that informs much of AK’s work. The first visual pun that strikes the viewer is the numbering in the image. Seven geese and one spider makes eight, which matches the number of legs on the spider. The spider is mentioned in the title without the article, implying that this is a character with the proper name Spider, and not simply a spider. Like a famous outlaw and his gang, or a pop singer and his backing band, Spider runs with the many geese. All the geese avert their gaze, many in seeming deference to the spider, whom they serve to frame and emphasize with their position and placement. However, we have one maverick goose (probably the lead guitarist), who boldly meets the viewer’s gaze unflinchingly. This goose perhaps stands in for AK, reminding us that even though he works for the spider, he still has his own goals, and his own life, or to put it in AK’s perspective, he may feel constrained by the responsibilities of his life, but he remains his own person inside. This seems reinforced by the goose immediately to the right of the bold goose. This goose stares in quiet awe at our focused friend. This kind of playful, graphical work is reminiscent of Henri Matisse. His later work was reduced almost to a poster-like quality of clear images against simple grounds.
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Image and title "Many Geese With Spider" copyright 2000 by the artist