The Story
I'm Not Thinking About It is a 40" x 63" original mixed media work by The Connor Brothers, composed as a meticulously painted shelf of vintage-style Penguin paperbacks. The books, each bearing the name of a cultural or political figure on the spine – from Mark Zuckerberg and Shakespeare to Vladimir Putin, the Dalai Lama and René Descartes – sit alongside irreverent, tongue-in-cheek titles such as A Load of Fuss About Fuck All, Pride in Prejudice, and I Drink Therefore I Am. The central book, Meditation: I'm Not Thinking About It, lends its title to the work and delivers the familiar Connor Brothers blend of irony and philosophical teasing.
The palette of soft blues and cream, combined with the convincingly distressed textures of worn paper, evokes the comforting familiarity of second-hand books. Yet the illusion is intentionally disrupted by the wit of the words, prompting the viewer to consider how knowledge, authority and cultural legacy are packaged and consumed. The penguin motif, hand-painted in varying sizes beneath each spine, offers a playful nod to the classic Penguin Books logo while also introducing a subtle narrative rhythm.
Mike Snelle and James Golding, working under the pseudonym The Connor Brothers, have built a practice on dismantling the boundary between truth and invention. Their art uses nostalgia not for comfort, but as a device to expose how easily we accept constructed narratives. In this piece, the bookshelf becomes a quiet battleground between what we think we know and what we unquestioningly believe.
Description
I'm Not Thinking About It is a 40" x 63" original mixed media work by The Connor Brothers, composed as a meticulously painted shelf of vintage-style Penguin paperbacks. The books, each bearing the name of a cultural or political figure on the spine – from Mark Zuckerberg and Shakespeare to Vladimir Putin, the Dalai Lama and René Descartes – sit alongside irreverent, tongue-in-cheek titles such as A Load of Fuss About Fuck All, Pride in Prejudice, and I Drink Therefore I Am. The central book, Meditation: I'm Not Thinking About It, lends its title to the work and delivers the familiar Connor Brothers blend of irony and philosophical teasing.
The palette of soft blues and cream, combined with the convincingly distressed textures of worn paper, evokes the comforting familiarity of second-hand books. Yet the illusion is intentionally disrupted by the wit of the words, prompting the viewer to consider how knowledge, authority and cultural legacy are packaged and consumed. The penguin motif, hand-painted in varying sizes beneath each spine, offers a playful nod to the classic Penguin Books logo while also introducing a subtle narrative rhythm.
Mike Snelle and James Golding, working under the pseudonym The Connor Brothers, have built a practice on dismantling the boundary between truth and invention. Their art uses nostalgia not for comfort, but as a device to expose how easily we accept constructed narratives. In this piece, the bookshelf becomes a quiet battleground between what we think we know and what we unquestioningly believe.
