Monday, May 4: it's Star Wars Day. And in honor of the international holiday, we take a look ar Robert Burden's massive Battle For the Arctic painting which was part of his Play exhibition at Heron Arts earlier this year. The painting is 14-feet long! Seems like the grand scale fits the narrative Burden has in the painting itself.
"The painting took over 2100 hours of studio time spread out over 4 year," Robert tells us "It depicts nearly 150 toys related to the arctic, snowy worlds, or one of the 5 countries vying for control of Arctic territory: Canada, Russia, Norway, Denmark (via Greenland), and America. It also depicts a number of taxidermied arctic animals (mostly from the Natural History Museum of LA), 1 Inuit inuksuk, and 5 political/royal figures representing each country. Vladimir Putin, Queen Elizabeth, William H. Seward (the man who brokered the purchase for Alaska), Prince Haakon and Prince Frederik. Centered in front of each flag is a superhero for their respective countries. Lego is a Danish company, and their claim to the arctic is through Greenland, so it's representative is a lego Greenlantern. The bronze star at the top center is the 'Arctic Star', the medal given to soldiers of the commonwealth who fought in the Arctic campaign during World War II."
