Through the tropes of Batman and Robin these portraits examine ideas of protracted adolescence and social disconnection. The series looks at the relationships I develop, and the repeating patterns that they form.
In essence, Robin is replaceable. He undertakes a role for Batman that he will either outgrow or die fulfilling. Then, following a period of mourning, Batman will inevitably replace him, filling the hole that his absence has left. At its core, it is a poignant yet bleak meditation on the cyclical effects of childhood tragedy and ones inability to move beyond such traumas.
Batman & Robin represents the heroic ideas of childhood and adolescence dashed against feelings of an unfulfilled life, one that lacks the sense of certainty we once dreamed of as children. Like Peter Pan's choice to never grow-up, this work is about being unstuck in a world that has moved on around you.
Pop culture and appropriation are enduring themes throughout my work. Both are used to examine the influences of fiction on the creation and representation of the self. Fictional characters and appropriated imagery become deconstructive tools, that speak to the universality of such imagery, while also questioning the freedom that they ultimately provide to our identities and self-definition.
Who we are is fundamentally bound up in the fictions and stories that we consume, however, in seeking moments of weakness, isolation and self-destruction, these works ultimately talk about the failure of identity.