"Symbols of Authority" Satirical Bond Paperwork Collage by Mickey "Kano" Kane

Details

Description

"Symbols of Authority" Satirical Bond Paperwork Collage

Elaborate collage by Mickey "Kano" Kane (American, 20th century). This piece is a … Read more "Symbols of Authority" Satirical Bond Paperwork Collage

Elaborate collage by Mickey "Kano" Kane (American, 20th century). This piece is a satirical collage that mimics the ornate design of a bond certificate to critique the fragility of global systems and the false promises of progress. In the center of this piece is a circle which is decorated with a repeated image of the goddess Athena with her arm raised. Athena is lightly washed in pink and blue, adding color to the black and white images. Within the circle are the words "symbols of authority replaced by units of consciousness." At the bottom of the center circle is a line of receding spheres. On the largest sphere a group of women are depicted in neo-classical attire. A section of white space provides breathing room between the inner and outer areas of the composition. Outside both the circles, the collage is a detailed and intricate assemblage of texture paper, neo-classical sculptures, ornate metal working, and various words and phrases. These details underscore the work’s poetic indictment of capitalism’s detachment from human cost, particularly loss of freedom. Visually rich and symbolically loaded, the piece confronts viewers with the uneasy trade-offs embedded in the concept of “value.”

Signed and dated "Kano 89" in bottom right.
Paper size: 21.38" H x 29.88" W

Mickey “Kano” Kane (American, 1939-2002) was born in Illinois and grew up in Sacramento, CA. Kane moved to the Pacific Coast and worked on mixed media panels - which he would refer to as a “Totem” – and detailed collage compositions. His collage work is generally satirical or critical in nature, frequently dealing with themes of money, capitalism, government, power, and debt. By contrast, his “Totem” sculptural work is abstract and free of direct symbolism, focusing instead on the aesthetics of the composition.

Original Member, Artist’s Cooperative Gallery

Artist’s Statement:
The Totem is indicative of the unfolding 21st Century, graphically and metaphorically. It is neither one side nor the other, nor does one side challenge or compete with the other. Each side cooperates and thus enhances the other so that both "sides" transcend that definition into a composition revealing that, indeed, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The Totem reflects the inner harmony that all sides, whether two or two thousand, are striving to manifest in their own inimitable way. See less