MIKE GREEN: M A D (Mutually Assured Destruction)

Opening Tuesday 22nd November, from 6pm

Forty Five Downstairs

45 Flinders Ln, Melbourne VIC 3000

Mutually Assured Destruction (M A D) is a doctrine of military strategy and security policy where a full-scale use of nuclear weapons by two or more opposing sides would cause the annihilation of both sides. It is based on the theory of deterrence, which holds that the threat of using strong weapons against the enemy prevents the enemy's use of those same weapons. As ridiculous as such a thing sounds, it is still today’s modern deterrence of such an event. 

How did we get to this point? Mike Green’s latest body of work grapples with the task of comprehending the incompressible. In an era marked by narrow political thinking, social media influence and mass consumerism, madness is mainstream and more dangerous than ever. What do you get when you multiply craziness by deranged insanity? You get something like the above painting. The 2020 capitol attack in Washington. A giant pack of babies storming a sacred American political institution in the name of a criminal.  

Mike Green is a career artist with 40+ years of exhibition history within leading commercial galleries in Australia and throughout the USA. His new body of work strikes a balance between real and ridiculous during a pivotal point in human history. For many years Australian politics have not included any big thinking. Short term decisions including the Iraq war and Australia’s response to global warming and asylum seekers have cost billions. Meanwhile, successive governments have plead lack of funds for vital social needs, whilst ignoring for example, reformation of the taxation system. At the same time, the international situation has continued to deteriorate following the pandemic, which brewed a soup of counterculture distrust and madness.

These paintings are a refuge point for Mike to comment on the current situation and humour is the code to engage with them. They are ridiculous paintings for ridiculous times. Fictional characters including kewpie dolls, toy soldiers, and Mexican wrestlers, become protagonists in modern historical contexts. The figures serve as a gateway to question our shortcomings and how absurd it all really is. According to Mike, “… trying to paint this madness out of my head using irony and metaphor – with some admitted pleasure.”

--

Presented in collaboration with fortyfivedownstairs.