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

These are some of the new works I’ve been doing for APEX, on different stages of completion…one is just a sketch for now.

Sharks are among us, closer than you may think.  As in a food chain, some individual’s talent is occupying the chairs at the top, the APEX .  You can find them in any given profession, company, institution…Sharks use their ruthlessness (natural or acquired), in different guises: charisma, charm, or open aggressive behavior to get what they want.

You probably doubt a lot before taking action. They know you do and they thrive in it. Because they don’t. Other people’s hesitation is the blood that attracts them, the flesh that feeds them, and the bones they happily dispose of afterwards and pile up at the bottom of the sea.

“So I need to be a shark then…”  Well, to successfully become one, you’ll have to kill precious things in you; like empathy or self respect, but pretend the exact opposite. Now be warned: unlike dolphins, sharks don’t get along well with each other…in such  red tinted waters, there’s always a bigger specimen with sharper teeth.