This series of paintings explores the use of images of destruction and the mediation of global environmental disasters through the media. Each painting presents a manmade environmental disaster as depicted in global news outlets and social media. Revell uses oil-based paints, in hyper-saturated pinks and purples, to depict a rose-colored lens through which these horrific events are distorted.
From Hiroshima to the oil fields of Kuwait, each painting is a document of man's folly and Nature's fury. This series presents the viewer with a stark reality of the arrogance in the Anthropocene.
This series of works addresses the construction of history and the fight for this authority amongst institutions of power. Sourcing imagery from online news sites and reworking with traditional painting techniques presents these images as New images of history. Like the exoticized images of the Orient during the 19th century or statues of rulers and depictions of troops conquering new lands and peoples, Mika's Unnatural Disasters portrays a sinister view of man's battle with nature.
