Figure Painting and Number Painting (1984)

Figure Painting (1984/1999/2000) and Number Painting (2005) are two examples of Kennedy's conceptual approach to creating visual representations of governmental power discrepancies. With a title that nods to the art historic trend of painting the human form, Figure Painting quickly shifts viewers attention to another type of figure, the military statistics of the Canadian, Mexican and American naval fleets. 

In his 2006 publication, Garry Neill Kennedy: Superstar Shadow, 1984-2005, Kennedy expands on Figure Painting: "I mixed naval ship colours of both Canada (Fig. 1) and Mexico (Fig. 3) with the U.S. fleet colour (Fig. 2) in quantities proportional to the size of their navies. As the U.S./Canadian ratio is 40 to 1 (Fig. 4) and the U.S./Mexican ratio is 25 to 1 (Fig. 5), there is no perceptible change in colour between Figs. 2, 4, and 5. This was the first time I used the typeface Superstar Shadow. The idea came from having noticed the numbers painted on the prows of the NATO ships that visited Halifax harbour – clearly visible to me from my NSCAD office window."

After this initial use of the Superstar Shadow font, Kennedy went on to create his own interpretation of the typeface, later using it in numerous projects including, Garry Neill Kennedy: Superstar Shadow (Stride Gallery, Calgary, 1986), UH-HUH (S.L. Simpson Gallery, Toronto, 1992), AN EYE FOR AN EYE (Museum London, London, ON, 2004), and FAILURE OF INTELLIGENCE (McMaster Museum of Art, Hamilton, ON, 2005). 

In 2005, Kennedy further explored creating visuals of military domination through ship paint colours with Number Painting. As he writes in Superstar Shadow: "Number Painting is a variation on Figure Paintings, a work I first presented at the 49th Parallel Gallery, New York, in 1985 (sic). In that work I attempted to comment on the military might of the United States in relation to its northern and southern neighbours – Canada and Mexico. Number Painting continues the theme of the dominant military power, but since the French fleet would be anchored in Halifax harbour during the course of the exhibition, I thought it would be more relevant to paint a comparison of Canada and France with the size and strength of the United States. I also exchanged the heading “Fig.” with “No.”: hence the title Number Painting."

Figure Painting was first installed at the 49th Parallel Centre for Canadian Contemporary Art in 1984, then re-articulated at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia (AGNS) in 1999, and again for Kennedy's retrospective Work of Four Decades (AGNS, National Gallery of Canada, Beaverbrook Art Gallery, 2000-2001). Number Painting was installed at AGNS ARTport in 2005.