Logotypes - Wen Photograph

On November 7th 1874, the North American cartoonist Thomas Nast published an infamous illustration in Harpers Weekly. He depicted a modest country man riding an elephant over the hazardous obstacles of Communism. The American Democratic Party later adopted the elephant as its emblem, as they felt it represented their political tone of voice and values. From this model, Logotypes is an investigation into symbols and the construction of meaning in contemporary political discourse. The series is structured into eight allegorical portraits. Logotypes requires the active participation of the viewer in order to complete the meaning of each symbol. But the series also attempts to examine the tensions between symbology, mythology, politics and society through logos, emblems, colours, and analogies. In this way, we may look at Democracy as the power of the populist imagination, turning the everyday into a spiritual experience. And some of you might wonder - what the heck is an elephant doing in Ohio?