Jerkface: “Saturday Mornings” Deconstructed, Reconstructed, Repeated

“We all draw from memory,” says Futura 2000 in the introduction, “and default to past experiences, finding associations to the various cast of characters. In some cases the faces have been changed to protect the innocent.”

Jerface “Saturday Morning”. Published by Over The Influence. December 2016

A direct link to his childhood and the televised cartoons of Saturday morning, where the majority of cartoons were relegated to appear in the 1970s and 1980s, Street Artist Jerkface recreates and multiplies his associations of happy times full of adventure, mysteries easily solved, crimes categorically punished.

His new book “Saturday Morning” collects the recognizable works of other artists and removes the emotional expressions found in facial features, recombining their other characteristics and playing with their associated resonance.

Jerface “Saturday Morning”. Published by Over The Influence. December 2016

Here are their features, elements from their environment, replicated, recombined, repeated as a pattern – sometimes creating new scenes and storylines. These elements have already been sold, have become familiarized as part of a visual vocabulary in the young minds of millions – a shorthand for action and adventure, comedy and the sunniest denial, simplified and bluntly persuasive interpretations of fundamental good, evil, power, and identity.

Jerface “Saturday Morning”. Published by Over The Influence. December 2016

Somewhere in here is the identity of Jerkface as he remixes the historical, psychological, emotional reverberations of characters made familiar by others, now materials for him to painstakingly paint under layers in studio en route to technical perfection, in aerosol on walls outside for big poppy impact on the passerby.

By dissecting the whole, one wonders what is the source of an images power. By focusing on composition, the initial intentions are edited, certain elements magnified and drawn attention to, others unseen. Here is a chorus of Aladdins, a moshpit of Mickeys, a crowd of Charlie Browns. Once you get used to these rhythmic deconstructions/reconstructions, your Saturday mornings will be forever changed.