Armitage often plays with animal symbolism in his paintings, drawing on East African myths and stories, and the symbolic role of animals in Western art history. In Slight of Hand a devious monkey emerges from the side of a man's face. Armitage thinks of the man as an ambigious and powerful figure who claims to represent the people while really looking after his own interests. The owl that sits behind him is both a symbol of wisdom and death in Kenyan society.
Courtesy Yuz Foundation
2016
Oil on lugubo bark cloth
100.0 x 150.0cm
Where you'll find this
Turner Contemporary
Permanent collection