Ozymandias Weeps, 12' x 8' diam., Vinyl and Mixed Media, 2005

Project Details

Ozymandias Weeps, refers to the poem Ozymandias by Percy Shelley in which a traveler stumbles across the wreck of statue in a vast wasteland of desert. The statue has an inscription that reads “My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings, look upon my works, ye Mighty, and despair!” the irony is that the implied great works have long been destroyed, leveled by wind and time, with nothing remaining. My Ozymandias weeps for the lament of his loss of prowess as the mighty cultural icon he once was.

The Big Boy icon has fallen out of favor with the American public in the last few decades. The franchises have mostly closed, including the once local franchise of my childhood. Apparently, we aren’t as keen to identify with the image of an obese child proudly thrusting an enormous cheeseburger into the air above him, as we once were. So here he sits, weeping with his burger on his lap. The foolish grin inverted to create an expression of ironic naive displeasure. His image-prowess is so weakened that he takes the form of a common advertising inflatable, joining the ranks of auto-dealership gorillas, and dancing wind socks.