Jesse Edwards

"We’ll tell you that, uh, Kojak always gets the killer, or that nobody ever gets cancer at Archie Bunker’s house, and no matter how much trouble the hero is in, don’t worry, just look at your watch; at the end of the hour he’s going to win. We’ll tell you any shit you want to hear. We deal in illusions, man!"

- Paddy Chayefsky

Life size ceramic televisions rendered with graceful, and mostly familiar figuration take up the majority of Jesse Edwards’ see the words I can't say.

The paintings, taking pause on iconic animated films like Alice in Wonderland (1951) and Fantasia (1940), offer a rare glimpse into a perfected screen grab rather than an ambiguous split second slide in a continuous whole. Details that Edwards chooses to include such as a smoke ring or a slosh of water from a pail are reinvented back into the still rather than the moving picture. The viewer is able to capitalize on time with the frozen screen, much like following one of Brueghel’s classic scenes, anticipating and recreating a next moment that won’t ever arrive.