Silo 1964

James Rosenquist made this painting, Silo, using oil paint, and collage. It's currently hanging at the Tate Modern. The way Rosenquist smushes together images from all over the place is just so cool! See how the colours are both bold and soft? That big patch of sky kind of reminds me of a faded billboard, like a memory of something you once saw. Then there's that collage bit stuck right in the middle, all angular and a bit jarring. I am drawn to how the textures play off each other. The smooth, almost airbrushed quality of the sky clashes with the rougher, more chaotic feel of the images in the collage. It's as though he's inviting us to see the world in fragments, where different realities overlap and collide. It reminds me of being in Times Square, where you are hit with so many different images and bits of information at once, but I also find that tension strangely beautiful. Rosenquist's work always feels like a puzzle, daring us to piece together our own stories from the fragments he presents.