As we are more connected, we become more intolerant to differences. It is often more difficult to accept and assess ourselves than to judge others. After all, we only accept our own "difference"; the kind that requires protection, the kind that we call our own.
After centuries of bloodshed and physical violence, we, as a species have entered the phase 2 of the "survival of the fittest". We are now challenged by differences on a daily basis as we are living in a constant ideological conundrum and are forced to confront and assess our own "difference"; something that triggers anxiety, anger and hatred. We are still at war, an ideological one that is opaque yet deadly.
The obsession with robotic technology reflects the loneliness in our species, something we all share, also the utopian dream of sameness. We know that we will never be able to achieve such sameness, that we realise our dreams (obsession) by creating an alter ego, the Other as robots. However unmanned obsession will have a catastrophic consequence as many scholars, scientists and sociologists have warned. It is perhaps when we have created the perfect alter ego that "we" as a species will be forced (by our own doings) into another Enlightenment.
With the rise of the internet, everything has changed, especially how we see each other and ourselves, through screens and in reality. Internet has given us the freedom of expression in ways that we cannot express ourselves in real life. Issues are magnified, marginalised and turned into double-edged swords. The idea of tolerance is moving further from the equator, but one should always remember, after all, we are just peoples...
The painting was created after Warhol was shot by Valerie Solanas, a rare portrait of Warhol exposing himself as an ordinary suffering human.