Walton Ford – Baba-BG (1997)

Louisiana poster featuring the work, Baba-BG (1997), by American artist Walton Ford (b. 1960), released in conjunction with Louisiana's 2010 Ford exhibition. Walton Ford paints watercolors populated with animals of all kinds that, in bestial wise either devour and fight each other, or are maimed by humans in a universe that is at once beautiful, unfathomable and grim. Louisiana's presentation of Ford was the first in Scandinavia.

Walton Ford's works immediately resemble classic naturalistic, zoological illustrations from a bygone era, executed with the same technical perfection.

But on closer inspection, they are far from the objectivity aimed at by science and rather strangely horrifying depictions of lust for power and evil, sometimes with a humorous angle.

In formats that reproduce animals in size one to one—which, among other things, results in works of 3 x 2 meters - and on a background of apparently old, yellowed watercolor paper, the artist unfolds his strange stories with shades of evil, now and then with a humorous angle.

The complexity and satirical undertone of the works cast a critical light on parts of our history and contemporary times, including ever-current issues such as industrialisation, colonization and man's impact on the environment.

But despite the fact that Ford's images often initiate a political or socially critical look at reality, his art is free of political correctness. His mission is something else, namely to tell stories where the adventurous is also allowed to exist.