This painting is a diptych, that is, a series of two paintings which as a set compose one single painting. In antiquity, a diptych was a polyptych connected with a hinge. In this piece the hinge exists in the space between the two images; that is-the CAIN which is presented above the traditional border of portraiture, and that which exists below and therefore in the imagination-the true body of the subject. This is also the seperation between the traditional role of the politician as a tested child of favor and the revolutionary and continued success of a sudden representative from the merchant class.
Here, CAIN's most private areas are concealed with three slices of delicious pizza. This is a reference to the fact that the CAIN personhood is mostly defined by his persona as a CEO. The good name that CAIN has embellished upon Godfather's Pizza is a direct result (as any head salesman would attest) of the 'people' who comprise the hidden face of such an organization.
There is an alluded fourth of slice of pizza; the hairpie of CAIN's chest. This artificially shaped representation of his masculinity, his bravado, rests behind the two upmost slices of pizza and seemingly supports them, or perhaps visa-vi. Here is the visual hinge between CAIN's anger which is barely concealed behind a pitch of positivity (his very body produces both heat and cold) and the nakedness which exists close below and which CAIN is even now beginning to consume. Surely CAIN is hungry and must eat. Will any pizza remain come November 2012?
The Cain Diptych is available as an auction item on Ebay. The current bid for the set is $13.63.
Herman Cain Pizza Lover's Diptych - Ebay Art Auction
Awesome work Dan !
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