MARTIN KENNEDY

Martin Kennedy has been exhibiting mixed media works since 1974 (UK) and since 1997 in Seychelles. Described as 'busy 'pop' art' , Kennedy's compositions explore a wide range of issues, many of them every day and fairly banal.  
His concerns encompass the following; How do we know what we know?  The dehumanising effect of the technological revolution.  Will spaceships come to save us from death?  Cotard's Syndrome, The fallibility and frailty of memory.  The beauty of ugliness.  

From 2000 until 2015 Kennedy only painted variations on the theme of 'The Red Tree', a visual metaphor for the threat of cultural homogeneity and the stripping of human rights by intrusive media and complicit administrations. To date 28 Red Tree paintings have been completed along with 'The Race to the Bottom', a CD recorded by 'The Red Trees' rock band in 2010. The Red Trees had the distinction of being simultaneously both the finest and the worst heavy rock band in the Seychelles during the period 2008-2010. Kennedy played the bass guitar and wrote some of the songs. More recently Kennedy completed a small series of compositions entitled 'Contemporary Heroes' which revisited a theme previously explored in exhibitions in London in the late 1970's.
These compact images are predominately red and incorporate sections of vintage maps. 'Maps are great images in their own right – like landscapes ironed flat and annotated.'