Googling pain
The titles of his paintings, currently on display at Soo Vac, are the same as his source material: Google image searches resulted in "628.jpg" and "crying(2).jpg," among 15 other found photos, that Childs has painted in careful brush strokes. But there are no links to stories or other searchable clues provided in the enlarged images; all that remains are interpretations of human loss and anguish via Childs' painstakingly realistic reconstructions.
As a comment on media saturation and a culture with a growing tragedy addiction, some of the best images of the exhibit are "crying1.jpg" and "anguish.28.jpg." By painting the photos exactly as they are, with "AP Photo" in one corner of "anguish" and the CBS logo creeping up on "crying1," Childs has made the images less about innate empathy and human connection and more about a culture of gawkerism.
In the end, though, any cynicism is abated by Childs' careful attention to each image, to each agonizing instant. The cracks in the anguish-twisted faces are deeper and more defined than any photograph could reveal, as if by reproducing the reproductions Childs made the images more real, and made the people in them more human.
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