‘Desert Theater” dwells on the theme of righteous pursuit in a hostile environment. A homage to a scene from the film Lawrence of Arabia can be seen in the middle right side of the piece. In the referenced scene, Lawrence risks death to go back into the merciless desert to rescue a lost member of his caravan, only later to be forced to execute his saved friend for crimes against another soldier in his army. It is a Kafka-esc, bitter sweet moment, marinated in notes of melancholy.
Each of Jackson’s works he sees as an individual, created with full personality and purpose including both darkness and light. Photography and music from heavy metal to classical have played important roles in Jackson’s life. His paintings are the combination of the captured moment expressed in visual rhythm.
While darkness and the ‘Jungian Shadow’ have always been elements in his artistic practices; “darkness reveals light” as he says, and vice versa; we see a more daring use of bright and joyous colours seemingly to illustrate blossoming plants and flowers that are then counter balanced with the use of uniform lines. But is what you see with the naked eye genuinely all of it? What images and objects do you really see between the lines?
Jackson also reflected upon his unintentional tendency to create works in pairs or more. Good Morning, Good Afternoon and Good Night form a story-like trio and in the pair The InBetween and Ghost of the Present we see reminiscent advancements from his previous series focusing on liner optics. In Blood Ivory and Jodorowsky‘s Wounds we see the artist pushing geometric order and controlled chaos past the content of the paintings into even the shape and construction of the canvas.
