Parker

2016
Inkjet on watercolour paper
90 x 60 centimeters

Parker is the criminal protagonist of a series of novels by Richard Stark, a nom de plume of the author Donald Westlake. Parker is an amoral blank who is ruthless and efficient in his pursuit of money, an existentialist everyman inhabiting a landscape of generic American towns, a man without identity and emotion.

The criminal tools of his trade are a gun and a car, hence the choice of situating him scoping out a vehicle in a dreary car sales lot wedged in by colourless concrete tilt slabs; it's a monochrome place festooned with an inane inflatable happy face advertising man. This setting was informed by the photos of the American photographer, Stephen Shore, with his images of quotidian urban landscapes from his book Uncommon Places. Another notable influence was the 1967 John Boorman film made about Parker, Point Blank, where the city plays a significant role in situating his persona in a soulless corporate environment.

For anyone wondering about the car dealer's name, it's an anagram of my surname, a choice dictated by my inability to think of anything better.

Parker, the Stark Novels Character : Wikipedia
Point Blank film review : Roger Ebert
Stephen Shore, Uncommon Places : The Independent Photographer

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