remarks
 

 

 

Forward by
Merideth Ramirez Talusan

 

In his drawings, Haden Nicholl presents a simple catalogue of common objects, which add up to produce potentially lethal weapons. In the process, he floats the notion that if deadly instruments can be made out of things that are easily acquired, then controlling materials may not be the answer to the problem of security.

Nicholl's drawings remind us of childhood. They consist of objects placed in rows, drawn in pencil and filled in with pastel color. They are without shadow, context, or extraneous dimension. The effect is an elegance of execution and logic that bears the mark of a precocious but innocent consciousness.

The tension between Nicholl's style and subject matter opens up many avenues in his work, from the notion of war as something rooted in play, to the possibility that a more simple logic may be necessary to untangle the complications of our current world. They can be seen as earnest or satirical, endearing or frightening. Too unassuming to serve as polemic, they nonetheless resist the current ways in which the response to terrorism has been formulated.
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