You Also Invent The Shipwreck is the result of painting The Narrow Road to the Deep North Spring 2024 Series on top of garbage bags laid down on the ground to protect the flooring in my studio. This painting takes its name from a line written by Paul Virilio:

"When you invent the ship, you also invent the shipwreck; when you invent the plane you also invent the plane crash; and when you invent electricity, you invent electrocution... Every technology carries its own negativity, which is invented at the same time as technical progress."

On the 16th of May 1689, the haiku poet Matsuo Bashō set off on a 150-day walking journey from Edo (Tokyo) to the northern Provinces of Honshū, Japan. In 2021, I recreated part of Bahsō's walking journey for ten days. You Also Invent The Shipwreck is one of ten paintings in The Narrow Road to the Deep North Spring 2024 Series.

acrylic on low-density polyethylene
20” h x 16” w x 1.5” d
(51 cm x 40.5 cm x 3.5 cm)