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Can you hear me now

Can You Hear Me Now?

A Mid-Century Master’s Memento Vivere

If you were around in the early 2000s, I’m sure you recall the ubiquitous Verizon ad campaign wherein an intrepid employee tests the call range for the cellular network.

Does the range extend to the grave? Perhaps Charley Harper’s tongue-in-cheek title asks this particular question, or maybe it’s a call to get off your phone and live.

Maximum minimalism.

The work is rendered in Harper’s iconic stripped-down style, with layers of stylized dead leaves forming a blanket covering the lower half of a skeleton. Wearing a watch and still clutching a bright red Nokia candy bar mobile phone, the skeleton’s broken teeth are jumbled in a topsy-turvy skull, and the contorted and broken limbs are embraced by what appears to be a steering wheel.

Insistent, green trilliums burst from the ground, while a sparrow builds a nest in an eye socket. In Harper’s world, nature gets the last word.

You can purchase this print through Charley Harper Art Studio.