Keyword: technology
Radiation
A naked man lies on a slab, half covered by a blanket or shroud. He could be a body in a morgue, except that a large machine hovers over him aiming down like a large cannon. A laser crossbeam links body
Heart Attack
The title “Heart Attack” suggests the phone is seen from the angle of a person lying helpless on the floor—the phone serves as a lifeline, but it may be out of reach. Robert pays homage to Alfred Hitchcock’s noir classic, “Dial
Accident
The influence of Andy Warhol is a strong point of departure. Both Warhol and Robert use photos from public sources. In his “Death and Disaster” series (1962-64), featuring car crashes, race riots, and deaths from suicide, electric chairs and atom
Poster for Agriculture in Transition
Notes on the subject of food appear in a small sketchbook Robert took with him on a trip to Toronto in the fall of 1985. His trips often coincided with health lectures or workshops. A month later Robert created this poster.
Scientist’s Vision
Robert has taken a file photo of a doctor or researcher peering through an electron microscope and added to the size of the instrument to make it a fantastic tower of technological wizardry, instrument of mad science. It reminds me
Moby Dick, Hiroshima, Three Mile Island
Robert loved the novel Moby Dick, especially the chapter “The Whiteness of the Whale” in which Melville argues that white is the both the colour of good and the colour of evil. The novel represents an epic chase spanning the
Chemotherapy
Along with the technology of microscopes, scanning devices, x-ray and radiation machines, Robert also documents how modern medicine is largely based on wonder drugs like those used in chemotherapy. In the above painting, Robert conveys a patient’s fearful anticipation of
Doctor and x-rays
Cancer is a condition that is not well understood and for which there is no reliable cure. Here the doctor, a man of science, appears to be stumped for an answer. The x-rays behind cast an eerie glow, and offer