no subtext

Acrylic painting on canvas 405mm x 510mm Unframed

Painting Description
Painting Reviews (12)

Subtext is content of a discourse – may it be a conversation, a book, a play, a film or a television series - which is not announced explicitly by the characters (or author) but is implicit or becomes something understood by the reader / viewer as the production unfolds. Subtext can also refer to the thoughts and motives of the characters which are only covered in an aside. Subtext can also be used to imply controversial subjects without specifically alienating people from the fiction, often through use of metaphor. This is considered to be a major concept in literature and has been a fashionable term celebrating obscurity and openness to interpretations.The title of this painting derides this concept as elitist. As can be seen from the data below, poverty has no subtext. It is glaring, obscene and human-made.The World Bank defines extreme poverty as living on less than US$ 1 per day, and moderate poverty as less than $2 a day. It has been estimated that in 2001, 1.1 billion people had consumption levels below $1 a day and 2.7 billion lived on less than $2 a day. The proportion of the developing world’s population living in extreme economic poverty has fallen from 28 percent in 1990 to 21 percent in 2001. Much of the improvement has occurred in East and South Asia. In Sub-Saharan Africa GDP/capita shrank with 14 percent and extreme poverty increased from 41 percent in 1981 to 46 percent in 2001. Other regions have seen little or no change. In the early 1990s the transition economies of Europe and Central Asia experienced a sharp drop in income. Poverty rates rose to 6 percent at the end of the decade before beginning to recede
Even if poverty may be lessening for the world as a whole, it continues to be an enormous problem:
• One third of deaths - some 18 million people a year or 50,000 per day - are due to poverty-related causes. That's 270 million people since 1990, the majority women and children, roughly equal to the population of the US.
• Every year nearly 11 million children die before their fifth birthday.
• 800 million people go to bed hungry every night.
• The three richest people in the world control more wealth than all 600 million people living in the world's poorest countries.

This image has been used by The Open University, UK in thier print and on-line magazine for social sciences - 'Society Matters' - issue No. 11

Besides the Reviews appreciation also comes from:

Efigenia, USA; DG, USA; Christiane, Germany; Kenan Alibegovic, Bosnia and Herzegovina; Valerie, Canada; Marcus, USA; Fiona, USA; Brenagh, Ireland; Heba, Italy; Jocelyne R, USA; Efigenia, USA; Riley Rilke, Germany; Sherie, USA; Michel, France; Noora, Egypt; Rossana, Italy; Kyler, USA; Jessica, UK; Shorina, Russia; Emma, Ireland; Swati, India;Michael, Australia; Yvonne, France; Anastasiya, Russia; Jeanine, The Netherlands; Dana, Poland; Albert, New Zealand; Sami, India; Khatool, Uzbekistan; Alex, Canada; Freya, USA; Nathalie, Ireland; Ahmed, Egypt; Gladis, Ireland; Susana, Germany; Mia, Spain; Soulena, Germany; Sterenn B, France; Bijay, India; Zara, Russia; Subtext Elsa, Brazil; Enrico, Spain