Holy Smoke
Holy Smoke
Signed Print
Conor Harrington
£500-£750
$1,000-$1,500 Value Indicator
$900-$1,400 Value Indicator
¥4,700-¥7,000 Value Indicator
€550-€850 Value Indicator
$5,000-$8,000 Value Indicator
¥100,000-¥160,000 Value Indicator
$650-$1,000 Value Indicator
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47 x 70cm, Edition of 100, Screenprint
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Meaning & Analysis
Holy Smoke (2016) by Conor Harrington is a signed screen print combining potent visual imagery with a mixture of vibrant colours and bold brushstrokes. Released in an edition of 100, the print represents the Irish artist’s need to bring his art closer to the issues that loom over modern life with its ever-evolving hierarchies of power.
Coming to the fore in this print is the looming threat of an environmental disaster signalled by a thick cloud of smoke that emerges rather unexpectedly from one of the three horn loudspeakers included in the upper left corner of the image. On the left side, a soldier carries a large flag with his two hands and, in doing so, appears to support the very loudspeakers that emit the dark vapour. In a usual Harrington’s twist, a vividly poisonous cloud of smoke is referred to in the title as holy. Through the tension between words and visual representation, the artist problematizes some of the most burning questions of global politics, including the accountability of people who wield power and their relationship to those who become subject to it. The artist commented in the context of his art: "I’m interested in systems of power and excess [...] - the excess and unrelenting desire for power and control."