The art world and artists have in the main not addressed one of the most important issues of our time – central banks foisting debt on the people and nations of the world and thereby controlling them.
An artist who has the knowledge and courage to look at and address the world of money, the dangers of monetary policies today and currency debasement on a scale that the world has never seen before is an Irish artist called Conor Walton.
In the words of Conor himself:
“This picture (see above) refers to some of the larger monetary disorders of our time.
That economists occasionally come up with naïve images to represent their ideas has been a boon to cartoonists in the financial papers, and ‘helicopter money’ is surely among the best of them.
I think it’s about time the subject received the fine-art treatment.
This picture celebrates some of the madness of our times, with its ‘heroic’ central bankers and their delusions of control.
It is part of a series of paintings loosely titled ‘Asymmetrical Warfare’.
This phrase sums up my entire career, but it has particular relevance to this current series of works because they deal explicitly with cultural conflict, with the crises of our times – political, ecological, financial, cultural and moral – and the warped perspectives that ensue.
These paintings represent a cultural battlefield. For me, they are a way of waging a small-scale war against modernity.
About twenty years ago, in my late twenties, I came to the conclusion that I really didn’t understand how the world worked: so much of what was going on made very little sense to me, particularly in the spheres of markets and finance.
So I went ‘back to school’ and tried to fill in the gaps in my understanding and overhaul my world-view. I emerged from that overhaul a ‘Doomer’.
Being a ‘Doomer’ is often cast in very negative terms, but I quickly discovered the positive side.
For a start, a couple of well-timed investments through GoldCore made me money. But, more importantly, I found my sense of artistic vocation renewed: my job as a painter is now to show what I think is really going on in the world, to document our times in all their craziness.
My chief accomplices in this enterprise have been my young children. With their aid, and the aid of their toy monsters, action figures, fire-trucks, helicopters, half-deflated balloon-globes and all the other paraphernalia of childhood, I’ve been able to construct in my studio miniature tableaux; dramatic assemblies of figurines and objects that refer, explicitly and symbolically, to the ‘big picture’; the great events of our time.
I then paint these, using all the tricks of pictorial illusionism – composition, perspective, light and colour – to render them as convincingly as possible.
Illusionism still has great artistic potential because reality is still something we find difficult and threatening.
I’ve heard it said that people can avoid facing reality, but they can’t avoid the consequences of not facing reality.
I think my work is very much bound up with these issues; with naturalism at one remove, with fantasy and disillusionment.
In our culture, to an historically unprecedented extent, affluence and industrial might have become weapons in a general war against reality, against nature.
Who’s going to win?”
Conor can be contacted and his art can be looked at Conorwalton.com
News and Commentary
Gold inches up from 8-week low as dollar slips (Reuters.com)
Yen Strengthens With Gold on North Korea Concerns (Bloomberg.com)
Gold Gains In Asia As Trump’s Firing Of Comey Sparks Policy Concerns (SeekingAlpha.com)
Gold is “still a great hedge” against financial stress (Bloomberg.com)
Gold likely to appreciate to $1,400 an ounce by end of 2017 – CREDIT SUISSE (ScrapRegister.com)
Video: Gold likely to be supported by geopolitical uncertainties – SocGen (CNBC.com)
Key Moments That Led Up to FBI Director Comey’s Firing (Bloomberg.com)
A History of Central Banking – Journey to Keynesian “Excessive Power” (HiddenForcesPod.com)
Beware hedge fund celebrities “talking their book” in Asia (StansBerryChurcHouse.com)
U.S. is hosting a debt party – $2,000 gold coming (Mining.com)
Avoid Digital & ETF Gold – Key Gold Storage Must Haves
Gold Prices (LBMA AM)
10 May: USD 1,222.95, GBP 944.61 & EUR 1,124.99 per ounce
09 May: USD 1,225.15, GBP 948.51 & EUR 1,124.20 per ounce
08 May: USD 1,229.70, GBP 948.71 & EUR 1,123.45 per ounce
05 May: USD 1,239.40, GBP 958.06 & EUR 1,130.33 per ounce
04 May: USD 1,235.85, GBP 958.15 & EUR 1,131.05 per ounce
03 May: USD 1,253.95, GBP 971.18 & EUR 1,148.99 per ounce
02 May: USD 1,255.80, GBP 974.25 & EUR 1,150.19 per ounce
Silver Prices (LBMA)
10 May: USD 16.29, GBP 12.59 & EUR 14.99 per ounce
09 May: USD 16.22, GBP 12.55 & EUR 14.88 per ounce
08 May: USD 16.38, GBP 12.64 & EUR 14.96 per ounce
05 May: USD 16.27, GBP 12.58 & EUR 14.85 per ounce
04 May: USD 16.50, GBP 12.80 & EUR 15.09 per ounce
03 May: USD 16.85, GBP 13.04 & EUR 15.44 per ounce
02 May: USD 16.95, GBP 13.12 & EUR 15.53 per ounce
Recent Market Updates
– Silver Investment Case Remains Extremely Compelling
– Gold Coins, Bars In Demand – +9% In Q1, 2017
– Irish Property Bubble – 38pc Believe Housing Market Will Crash
– Silver Bullion On Sale After 10.6% Fall In Two Weeks
– London Property Bubble Vulnerable To Crash
– Silver price manipulation, is regulation putting a stop to it?
– Trump 100, Margin Debt Stock Bubble and Gold
– Gold Bullion Imports Into China via Hong Kong More Than Doubles in March
– LePen Euro Frexit Panic Over – “For Now”
– Gold Sovereigns – ‘Treasure’ Trove Found In UK – Don’t Be The Piano Owner
– Silver, Platinum and Palladium as Investments – Research Shows Diversification Benefits
– When Trump Turns On “Enemy Within” Fed It May Create 1970s Style Stagflation
– Silver Production Has “Huge Decline” In 2nd Largest Producer Peru
