Lies these days come fast and furious, often at a pace that makes them hard to keep up with. In such a situation, there may come a point where we are not able to determine if we are being lied to at all.

            Love & War was constructed to create a visual lie.

            The graphite on paper drawings in this series are meant to be seen as a group. I merely animated pictures of them here, like a flip book, so they can be seen together online. The drawings have as a subject a central figure constructed of two entwined line segments and two background “shadow” elements. The central figure rotates clockwise from drawing to drawing. The shadows rotate as well. The shadow on the right side rotates twice as fast as the central figure. The shadow on the left rotates in the opposite direction, at the same speed as the central figure.

            Over the course, while syncopated, the three elements get out of logical congruence. The question is: Is there a point when, in looking at the drawings that incongruence becomes apparent? Do we catch that lie?

—John Ebbert

March 2026