b2 barbeque with the duke

Bursting with shifting forms and images, Ackermann's b2 barbeque with the duke, painted in 1999, has the appearance of a Manga collage. The various elements in the painting resemble contemporary graphics, evoking our era of CGI and computer games, and yet these images have been corroded, dissolved, decontextualised just enough that we are forced to observe and investigate the painting in its own right. Yet these were images based in the real world, images that Ackermann has soaked up and digested and mangled and placed back on the canvas in an energetic new form. In this way, b2 barbeque with the duke is very much a 'mental map,' as Ackermann refers to his paintings. In the various shapes that appear on the canvas, Ackermann has created a deceptive appearance of space and perspective. This is a three-dimensional image, yet of what? This colourful chaos remains ultimately inscrutable - Ackermann has deliberately conjured up a hurly-burly of imagery that teeters on the wrong side of the brink of recognition. Instead, these shapes and colours remain abstractedly evocative, conjuring many diverse associations in a pulsing information overload. Thus Ackermann manipulates his viewer he sets our minds in motion as we work through the picture, seeking familiarity, and in this way we are taken on a hallucinogenic rollercoaster ride. b2 barbeque with the duke sets off fireworks in our minds, frees us from figuration enough to enjoy the crazy appearance of the painting in its own right. Just as b2 barbeque with the duke evokes a strong and almost too real sense of physical space, so Ackermann is our guide though it, leading us on a merry dance through a landscape made up from the unformed, techno-primordial ooze of our image-drenched generation.