A few days ago friend of mine, Monsieur G, sent me an e-mail; he had been in Dublin in 2013 and visited my studio, where I showed him the initial pieces of APEX. Among these was “Have a laugh”, the painting of a hyena on a suit. Instead of being on a regular canvas, the piece was painted directly on a stretch of suit fabric, as will be the case with”The Boss” and around six other pieces depicting an apex predator in suits.

By the end of October 2013, I had put together a 12 page full colour brochure, outlining the exhibition: timeline, artist statement, pieces involved, opening event… a summary of the projected series “APEX“. I wrapped everything up using the graphic design looks of “The Economist”, in a conscious move to emphasize the overall concepts as well as speaking in a familiar language to potential sponsors. Of course, “Have a Laugh” was on the brochure’s cover.

So back to the recently received e-mail, an alarmed M.G was asking whether I had seen “The Economist” latest issue, and attached a picture of it’s cover. WTF!!! (my words) Has my brochure somehow leaked? It’s been on-line for a while now…Well, I don’t think it had. I believe it’s an ironic, bizarre and extreme case of synchronicity or (in my case) anticipation. By the way, my artistic life is full of such examples, some of them quite scary (like painting two smoking towers in the background of “KZ ball pit“, months before 9/11).

Ideas are floating out there. Or at least the raw materials which form them eventually in someone’s mind. To put it in different words, the dots of reality are printed every day for us to connect them or not. For instance, Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street, based on a Wall St broker’s autobiography, has its title for a reason. Incidentally, whoever at The Economist came up with the cover idea, had clearly been influenced by Scorsese’s mainstream feature and perhaps old Victorian age illustrations of dogs in suits. I certainly wasn’t  influenced by the first, it wasn’t out there when I started APEX.

Fortunately the series is a lot more than this, and goes far deeper into the predatory matters of our contemporary world. Check for yourselves!

RP Browne