ABSALOM by Kevin Rolly

After my brother took his life I didn’t make art for a year. This was my return. I had just begun experimenting with gunpowder as a medium and my only impulse was to simply make a tree with the substance. It was my first work that was not photo based and as I drew in the tree I realized that the piece would be about my brother. A familial betrayal led to his suicide and the word “Absalom” appeared in my mind. It’s then I knew. This often happens with my work where I don’t know the end from the beginning. It has to find me. I drew in hidden personal symbols throughout the piece that only I know the placement of and VERY carefully glued over a pound of gunpowder into place. For the record that is a LOT of gunpowder.

On the day of ignition I added more loose gunpowder to the surface as friends assembled to watch the show. This was very dangerous but they knew the risks and with safety goggles in place I lit the piece. It went off like a bomb. The injuries were thankfully minimal and only to my cameraman who found it humorous.

I cleaned the piece, put a protective coating over it and began to add layers of oil paint. It looked creepier than I wanted so I added the Indian Yellow as a symbol of life beginning again. I then realized the piece was equally about me and my journey through grief. To this day there is not a work like it in my collection and there may never be.