Proxies plot a narrative in retrospect to one’s layering of memories, through the influential components in the visual culture of our modern daily lives. Images taken from newspapers, postcards, photographs, advertisements, historical archives are taken out of their original context and transformed into paintings, exploring the potential of popular imagery for expression as they are elevated to the level of abstract ideas. Inspired by the power of mass media to generate images and icons that have quickly settled into our culture as commonly shared experiences, artists Andre Tan and Dyn blurred the line between pop culture and fine art to re-invent the chief importance of interest in painting with the transmission of the images into their works.

Proxies afforded the suggestion of looking at the images through the artists’ works from two perspectives: one as looking to question reality, and the other, as looking to explore the ambiguity of perception and representation. Classified in sequence of genres, Proxies translate a whole new world of perceiving mass media images and icons, opens up a wide range of subject matters, undoubtedly important to the artists, highlights as well on how images and icons are remembered and reconstructed creating astounding effect on our memories and present lives with the reminder on the power of these images which have moved us in ways that cannot be intellectualized in our modern culture.