In the fading light of the sunset, you see three shadowy figures in the distant horizon. A cowboy, his horse, and a dog. The cowboy is riding his horse across the horizon and not far behind, the dog chases after the cowboy and his horse, the distance between the two becoming greater with every stride. When the light of the sun is moments away from completely vanishing, the sky has no stars and no moon. You continue to watch as the night slowly swallows the three figures in the distance and eventually all that is left is a vast, true black. You can still hear the dog's bark as it continues to chase after the cowboy and his horse in the black of the night. You laugh a little and smile. "Stupid dog."

Aldon Chen

These images are pen drawings I during the winter of 2019, a time when I felt particularly cheated by Enlightenment ideas and values like freedom, merit, justice which western civilization prided itself on an distinguished itself by.

While I was not inspired by her, I think these drawings resemble Kara Walker's unique approach to contrast and shadow. Known for her cut-paper silhouettes of black figures on white backgrounds, Walker uses sharp contrast to explore and reveal the horrible brutalities of American inequality and racism.

In my drawings, I wanted to reinterpret the archetype of 'cowboy' which to me, is a symbol of these Enlightenment ideas in the west. I wanted to depict them as shadowy, almost phantom-like characters. There is enough detail to realize the archetype, but nothing else. Like a chimera, sought and hoped for, but illusionary from the beginning.

Aldon Chen

WANTED

THE WEST