Howard Mason, 1984–2022, 2022
Oil on canvas
76 x 50 cm

In 1984–2022, Howard Mason creates a darkly satirical panorama of modern society that channels both George Orwell’s dystopian vision and the moral allegories of Bosch and Hogarth. Set in a chaotic, media-saturated landscape, the painting exposes humanity’s willing submission to power, distraction, and self-destruction. A colossal nude woman sprawls across the hills, representing society’s fixation with desire and identity, while Donald Trump’s grotesque head looms as a new-age demagogue—his open mouth and wrestling figures atop his skull a metaphor for conflict and populist spectacle. Nearby, an iPhone stands on a pedestal, worshipped like a false god by a crowd lost in ecstatic conformity. Above, blue Twitter birds drift through a polluted sky, symbols of both surveillance and the illusion of freedom. At the edge of this moral carnival, Noddy sits on a green recycling bin, reading—a quietly absurd emblem of innocence and detachment. Blurring satire and prophecy, Mason’s painting echoes Orwell’s warning from 1984: that control need not come from tyranny alone, but from the distractions, desires, and devices we so readily embrace.