Deities and Demons

A traffic jam embodies congestion. Roads and drivers are tested. People and machines become impatient. The final destination seems out of sight and mind, impossible to reach. In Deities and Demons, Ben Puah’s (b. 1976) current series of works reveal the metaphorical clogging of the human psyche, man-made systems and political turmoil. Capturing life in global disarray, Puah’s collages reference the complications of pandemic reality. In addition, imagery derived from numerical representation influence this ongoing body of work. Foreboding omens and the rapid race to arrive through any means places the artist in a crazed driver’s seat. Conflating worlds of absurdist culture and the afterlife, Puah takes the wheel in leading audiences through the heavy traffic of his practice.