Aftermath-Vernon O'Meally

Aftermath

  Vernon O'Meally

Every crash has two parts: the impact and the image that comes after. In Aftermath, Vernon O'Meally paints both. Each diptych puts a free-form abstract panel, worked like jazz from rhythm and impulse, next to a hyper-rendered wreck of an American or European icon: a Chevelle SS, a Countach, the General Lee, an E30. The abstract half is the collision itself, pure energy, no regard. The rendered half is what's left once the noise stops, and it's the part we photograph and share.

The series is built around the X of the Confederate battle flag, the saltire, and moves through three stages: spectacle, reckoning, and liberation. The General Lee, one of the most famous cars on television and a vehicle for that flag, sits empty mid-collision while a small crowd on the horizon holds up phones to record its fall. It isn't a celebration or a…