God and Country
Matt Bahen and Scott Sawtell

In the tradition of large-scale “history” paintings, Sawtell and Bahen both use this media as a vehicle for critical commentary on modern political issues and the inherent biases of recorded history, focusing on our neighbours to the south. Scott Sawtell lives and works in Newmarket, Ontario, and is therefore an outsider to the American culture, historical icons, and political administration that he critiques through his artwork. Based out of Toronto, Matt Bahen uses images of snipers and thermograms as metaphors for globalization and mass media. Exhibiting Sawtell and Bahen’s work together encourages comparisons between the two artists’ approach to the role of painting as critical social commentary. This work focuses on the on-going war in Iraq and the current USA Administration while tackling such hot button issues as the de-personalization of war, political racism and the role of religion in politics.

Matt Bahen
My work deals with military technology and imagery, utilizing them as a metaphor for the organization of power and human relationships. I see war as the most intense level of human interaction in all its variable dynamics, and the level of dehumanization in contemporary military operations has a direct relationship to the dehumanization taking place in the civilian world.

These works deal specifically with a comparison between contemporary warriors, the sniper, and warriors of the past, heroes of the Wild West. The work is about bearing witness not only to world military conflict but to the way that technology influences the social and economic infrastructure of society.

Scott Sawtell
My current body of work explores the history of the United States through metaphorical representations of past American presidents. Each painting is representative of one American President. 

Information regarding the past and the present are suspect as are my own interpretation as a Liberal, Canadian artist. The very nature of my exploration questions the usefulness of history as well as the role of the outside observer in the re-creation of this history. While the surface of my work is rooted in the past through the use of the historical iconography, the meanings very much relate to the present. Questions arise about such broad subjects as politics, marginalization, religion, war, scientific progress, the Canadian relationship with the United States and the dichotomy between the American Dream and American history.

I have always been attracted to ideals, specifically when ideals are disjointed with reality. One of the reasons that I’ve referenced American History is to mark the disparity between the ideals of the American Dream and the opposing, often brutal, reality. 

Exhibition date: May 25 - June 17, 2006

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