The Killer

In philately, a killer is a particularly heavy type of hand-stamp commonly consisting of horizontal bars used to cancel or obliterate postage stamps. In Paul Collins’ “The Killer” (2023) we find a collection of 80 postcards, where ‘the killer,’ having been offset onto the picture from a previously obliterated postcard, is isolated, framed. Within the context of Collins’ work, these vignettes could be read as thumbnails for potential paintings. They also reference his perpetual series of photographs of air vents and his research into the representations of writing and text in classical painting.

[publisher's note]