The Great Battle, After Canaletto, Venice, Italy, 7m x 2m, 2014–23

A monumental digital collage that stages an epic clash between the characters of childhood, The Great Battle unfolds across a fantastical version of Venice, echoing Canaletto’s luminous canal-scapes. Here, the serenity of Venetian architecture becomes the stage for chaos: hundreds of figures drawn from decades of popular culture—superheroes, toys, cartoon villains—converge in an allegorical confrontation. Divided along ethical lines, characters on the right represent kindness, compassion, and innocence; those on the left embody menace, cruelty, and domination.

This dreamlike fray does more than celebrate nostalgia—it exposes how media embeds ethical binaries in our collective childhoods. The work resonates with Stuart Hall’s insight that popular culture is “one of the sites where this struggle for and against a culture of the powerful is engaged” (Hall, 1997, p. 239), revealing the moral dialectics beneath the surface of childhood fantasy. In evoking Canaletto’s precision and theatricality, the piece also echoes his own reflections on illusion and spectacle: “My intention is always to give a faithful representation of reality, even when it appears incredible” (Canaletto, quoted in Links, 1977, p. 15).

References:
Hall, S. (1997). Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices. Sage Publications.
Canaletto, quoted in Links, J.G. (1977). Canaletto. London: Phaidon Press, p. 15.