Artist Statement:
The Beastie Boys dropped Ill Communication in May 1994. Three years later, Radiohead released OK COMPUTER containing the track “Paranoid Android.” Both albums are a decade ahead of the proper dawning of social media in 2006 as we know it. Factor into today’s social friction and automated advancements with AI, and the ideas of a paranoid android and ill communication have morphed into new forms. “They See Us As Data” is the mashup of these two earlier works of music, underscoring malleable nature and adaptable meanings behind a rhythm or lyric in new times. This painting reimagines the Beasties themselves experiencing the ill communication of being a data-driven androids of the future. While “Community Razed, Community Praised” seems less ominous, it can be just as destructive to certain groups of people, especially as neighborhoods and historic districts, specifically of low income and/or marginalized people, are zoned and incentivized for redevelopment rather than investment. It is a commentary on an affordable housing crisis run rampant, a purported revitalization that too often razes cornerstones and community histories for a new prosperity, and arguably for those who can already afford it.
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Thad DeVassie is a multi-genre writer and artist who creates from the outskirts of Columbus, Ohio. His collection Splendid Irrationalities was awarded the 2020 James Tate International Poetry Prize (SurVision Books). His works have been commissioned and displayed in galleries from California to Pennsylvania. More of his written and painted works can be found at www.thaddevassie.com.