DECADE Theme Preview: “Language Is a Virus from Outer Space”
Day 2: Nancy Dwyer’s Kill Yourself
Words are used in a darkly humorous way in Nancy Dwyer’s painting Kill Yourself. The threateningly violent words “kill yourself” are softened by the cartoon-like style in which they are painted and the bright, bubble-filled background in which they are placed. It is left to each viewer to determine how much weight to give the words.
IMAGE: Nancy Dwyer (American, born 1954). Kill Yourself, 1989. Vinyl paint on canvas, 70 x 90 inches (177.8 x 228.6 cm). Collection Albright-Knox Art Gallery. Gift of Olivia Badrutt, 2008.
