John Gerard
I have long been fascinated by the visual phenomenon of gasoline on water. Known technically as a thin film refraction it produces alluring prismatic forms on streets and bodies of water, both highly attractive and toxic. Working with a programmer the physics of millions of rays of light hitting oil and splitting was simulated and the result placed upon small portraits from the banks of four great continental rivers. The Yangtze, Nile, Amazon and Danube. I consider the works to be realistic. Colourful like national flags and softly undulating on the surface of the rivers they point less to global differences and more to a shared global culture of gasoline. As of 2020 this unified system consumes one hundred million barrels of petroleum a day.
John Gerard
Courtesy: The artist, Pace Gallery, New York and Thomas Dane Gallery, London.