Neo-psychedelic - by Hugo Ares. Published in Bold Magazine

The treatment of wrestling in pop culture and art has come to form a sub-genre of the arts, thus; Scott McEwan a Canadian artist based in London, Ontario, redefines wrestling’s art works as an expression beyond the ring.
The series of works by Scott McEwan “Neo-psychedelic”, forms a pattern of so many analogies with reality, with a graphic discourse of experiences, forming a web of symbols and signs that show the catharsis in the popular relief, the manifestation of identities available to an audience that renew an enthusiasm and endless struggle between good and evil.
Among the strings that limit the space of these works, there is the duality between the urban myth and masculinity. The popularity of wrestling is not free. In this series of works, he mixes myth and ritual, fantasy focus, strategy and brute force with pop art.

    

With a very refined drawing, Scott portrays the ubiquitous gladiator – figure, which is none other than the representative of the popular spirit of the struggle. The paintings expose the ideology of the fighter; the costumes, masks and makeup facilitate the exchange of identities. In his work, Scott draws attention to the importance of pop art. It is a compendium that demonstrates how the graphics has become one of the primary elements of the visual arts of the past decade. Drawings, and collage of colors, are combined with actual artistic techniques. Scott is elegant in his stroke, sober in how he uses colors, agile and powerful. The work is a way to see the artistic communication relating to this sport-entertainment.

“The duality of Face and Heel seems, to me, another easy fit in this world of the bipolar schism… Where individuals are relegated by choice and social manipulations into extreme dualities such as Coke or Pepsi, left or right, top or bottom, happy or sad, and Mac or PC.  Even pro wrestling is not immune. It is for this reason that I based my work around the concept of the “Tweener” (the ambiguous wrestler). In these paintings you will find images of wrestlers, masks, and gear juxtaposed with cartoon characters, flowers, nuclear reactors, and other random images.

These images are woven together in a visual webbing of definitive contours and oozing ink outlines. The outcome is a fine line between representation and abstraction. His artistic values are associated with the carnal figures of the fighters, their fluid movement and theatricality of their masks. Hidden behind the drawings, we observe other subtle messages such as culture, sexual orientation, identity, social connections made-through the Internet, and lived experiences, also, we see issues like “territory and identity” in a perfect communication: sport as a cultural phenomenon that reflects the identity of the modern metropolis and globalization.

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