Rob Jones’ inspiration for “King’s Lead Hat”:
“There’s a scene in Star Wars where Grand Moff Tarkin strides into his council room on the Death Star announcing the dissolution of the Imperial Senate. His officers express concern over the Emperor’s ability to maintain control of star systems without this governing body. To this Tarkin retorts, ‘Fear will keep the local systems in line. Fear of this battle station.’
This exchange made me consider the motivation behind the Emperor’s construction of Darth Vader. I’m not referring to just the cybernetic bits maintaining Vader’s body but also the active manipulation of his mind to bring him to the dark side. The Emperor created in Vader a weapon no different from the Death Star in its ultimate purpose, a means of generating fear amongst the vast populace he ruled. An administrative tool that became the executor of the Emperor’s cruel commands. With that in mind, I decided to depict Vader as a facility harnessing and directing his immense natural power towards malicious ends.”
“King’s Lead Hat” by Rob Jones is a hand numbered 27“x36” screen print with metallic inks. This Star Wars print has a limited edition run size of 255 pieces and will retail for $50 each. “King’s Lead Hat”can could have been purchased directly from Mondo at a random time on Tuesday, December 28th, but it sold out instantly.
