Mike Stone – Nothing’s Safe

sarah

Mike Stone – Nothing’s Safe

$250

My work explores the power of symbols, with a particular focus on line. This current series investigates the barcode as a symbol of commerce and consumerism. Introduced in the seventies to standardise, track, and ultimately speed up consumption, the barcode adorns most commercially available products around the world. In recent years the bicolour lines have become a powerful anti-capitalist motif, both in tattoo and graffiti art, as a critique of society’s obsession with the material world.

“We can’t do anything to change the world until capitalism crumbles. In the meantime we should all go shopping to console ourselves”. Banksy

Exploring block printing techniques, paint and stencils, these multimedia line works began life as a barcode, generated from everyday words that turn language into a form of commodification. Working on recycled paper shopping bags and packaging plywood, these works play on the creative ways in which we can reinvent this ubiquitous set of black lines we all love to hate.


Size: 600mm x 450mm

Medium: Mixed media

Status: Sold