In this work the viewer has to confront a range of materials (pumice, silkscreen, paint, collage) and references (the music of the band Pavement referred to in the title, gestural painting, classified adverts) that do not necessarily sit easily together.

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Large outlines of the letters R A O (from the word karaoke) are filled in with silkscreen prints derived from classified adverts from a Bay Area newspaper from the late 1960s. Sections of pink gingham cloth are also collaged onto the canvas with other brighter orange and blue grids and lattices painted on top and underneath. An expanse of deep blue paint speckled with lighter shades of blue, pink and green is laid over the surface. This thick impasto, which appears in an irregular, scrawled configuration along with the other curved gestural shapes, contrasts with the linearity of the text and grids. The curved areas are made by ‘drawing’ and ‘erasing’ with a mouse on a computer using a Photoshop painting program. Owens creates a composition on a screen, projects it onto the canvas, marks the outlines with masking tape and then fills in the areas with the impasto paint. At the bottom of the canvas, there is a scattering of glued-on pumice stones. The title is based on Owens imagining the incongruity of people singing songs by the American indie band Pavement at a karaoke bar. (Tate 2)

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“I really want paintings to be problems … The painting is coming out at you and asking you to put these things together. Why is this painted on newspaper-like ground? Why is everything so disparate? … What interests me in painting is that it comes out into the room, almost punches you in the face.” (Owens in Berens, S)