Thought-provoking works by Ben Tolman

In his 2014 thought-provoking series ‘Fiction’, exhibited at The Fridge art gallery in May, DC-based artist Ben Tolman pictures an essentially realistic version of contemporary society, which no longer hides behind its illusive masks and nice fairytales. Although it feels as if observing a parallel universe with almost no possibilities of interfering in our comfortable vision of reality, the world depicted by the artist shows more similarities with our own than differences.

In this series, people are illustrated with no clothes, faceless and lacking any traces of individuality and personality. Unconsciously wandering from one point to the other with their bicycles, taking photos and carelessly carrying their backpacks, presented as couple or family in some cases, their slightly ambiguous and bizarre behavior may point out their incapability of clear understanding of the time and space they exist in, as they walk almost undisturbed by what surrounds them, mostly indifferent to the other, rarely questioning and resisting higher powers and authority (neither alone nor together). We see this curious species, which we believe the artist intends to be a reflection of mankind’s current state, worshiping nothingness, lost in a virtual reality which they might have created, but no longer control, we learn their stereotypes and sense their frustration, fears, hopes, beliefs.

The works are rich in symbolic details, dynamic, and at the same time minimalist, connected in composition through the horizon line, that remains still while references to real-world events and imaginary or surreal situations gradually unfold before the viewer. The drawings are also based on contradictory juxtapositions and emotions that strengthen the message of the work and encourage a critical approach in regard to the proposed themes or even stir up nostalgia.

The last two works in our selection, entitled ‘City’ and ‘Suburbs’, which are not part of the ‘Fiction’ series, take us behind the boulevards and main streets to the ‘homes’ of the homeless, of the outsiders, those excluded from society, and also suggest the costs of maintaining and supporting a reality which we actually do not care to challenge, question or at least see as it is, accepting it in order to be accepted.

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Find out more on his website, on Facebook, Instagram and DeviantART.