Year of the Monster
In 1933 big game hunter and reporter Maraduke Wetherell was dispatched by the London Daily Mail to investigate reports of a large unknown creature rumored to reside in Loch Ness. His breathless expedition stoked a media firestorm that riveted much of the world at the time and established a myth that remains iconic to this day. This body of work, expands well beyond Wetherell to take in images and sounds, adverts, wall papers, movie stills, forgotten socialites, pulp magazines and other cultural detritus of the period. These accompany Wetherell’s investigation on multilayered painted panels and invoke contemporary questions about perception and belief. Taken together the paintings arrest a bustling cacophonous moment in the press that place one monster above the fold even as another very real one rose in Germany. These paintings start with dubious reportage and end trying to a glimpse of what’s a foot just below the surface.
