J.R. Haddock

Artist JR Haddock makes digital art whose concepts are as compelling as its craft is rough. For example his series of "Screenshots":

"a series of drawings from an isometric perspective, in the style of a computer game. The subject of each drawing is the image, or images, that created a popular cultural event. Historical events (like the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at the Lorraine Motel) are used interchangeably with fictionalized events (like the picnic scene from The Sound of Music)."

Specifically, Haddock comingles depictions of famous violent events -- often involving real and traumatizing public images of death, like the Columbine Murders (above), the car crash killing Diana Spencer and Dodi Fayed, and the bodies of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman -- with movie images from The Godfather, 12 Angry Men, and The Sound of Music that touch on similar subjects: courtrooms, shootings, etc.

This juxtaposition, combined with the imperfect facture of Haddock's recreations and the dated nature of his stylistic referent (how many people under the age of 25 have even ever seen the Leisure Suit Larrys and Kings Quests that these imitate?), makes for a disturbing, confusing, and lasting impression.

Similar things could be said for Haddock's series of Internet Sex Photos, or "ISPs", which consisted of low res images taken from online porn with the figures roughly photoshopped out of them: