Out Of Context: An Experiment In Chaotic Art

by Davi Barker

The goal is chaos. Photographs and headlines are ripped from current publications. Blocks of text are cut into pieces, breaking grammar and syntax, and reassembled out of context. The result is a soup of words and images with no narrative. It has a distinct theme, but a disjointed random quality that prevents a coherent interpretation, which is the whole idea.

I don't believe that pure chaos exists. So, I see apparent chaos, especially the patterns that emerge, as an opportunity to witness the signs of Nature’s God. The modern world, especially the information age, is constantly erupting in dazzling disorder. We are bombarded with it constantly, every day.

When confronted by disorder, the conscious mind seeks out patterns, fills in gaps, and projects preconceptions, but much of the impact is subconscious. I’m trying to strike the viewer there by presenting something like a subconscious snapshot of the chaos in the mind. Any message the viewer interprets in the composition is as likely to be a reflection of their own mind as of mine.

54 pages, Paperback

Published January 25, 2022