High Life

High Life is the third signed print.  It is one of Paolozzi’s images which is to me about layers of visibility/reality; it rewards contemplation without any reference to anything outside itself.

But . . . here are some cues to the outside world:

High Life is a pilsner beer brand of Millers, the American brewers.  It is very fizzy – could that account for all those black ‘bubbles’-like strata of carbonated beer in a glass which form the background of the print? 

‘High Life’ could also refer to ‘substances’ – it’s 1967 after all.  Those fuzzy horizontal lines in the centre rectangle could suggest weed-affected vision.  And, maybe, those sharp, brightly coloured diagonals are channelling us through those gates of perception apparently unlocked by Lysergic acid diethylamide.

http://laramide-orogeny.deviantart.com/