"Athena 2 - La Victoire de l'Occident" is a commissioned work based upon my original work "Athena". A few months ago, I high-school friend (we’ll call him “AC”), reached out and we talked about our separate journeys, how the world had changed since we were at school some 25 years ago and my artistic interpretation of events. AC had scrolled through my works on my website and was enamored with "Athena", but given the original work was already in a private collection, I offered to create a new version.

And so Athena 2 was effectively commissioned, not as a copy but a new piece based on the composition of the first with some key differences. The first thing I want to say about this work is to explain its French title "La victoire de l'Occident” which translates simply to "the victory of Occident". Athena is the Greek Goddess of Knowledge and War. Cultured in the cradle of western civilization, she's the main and obvious symbol of occidental culture. And as such, the title is clearly ironic; numerous compositional aspects both subtly and explicitly allude to the defeat of occident.

Athena stands on a sanguine red mantle, gilded with skulls and iconography that contrast with the dark blue and black and white, allusions to grand notions of patriotism that comprise many western flags and banners. If you look closer, hidden in plain sight is the figure of Aylan Kurdi (the three year old Kurdish refugee who was found lifeless and washed up on a Turkish beach). Here, Aylan is painted exactly as portrayed in the satirical journal, Charlie Hebdo.