In Allegory of Post Truth, Brown gives us a mystic positioned squarely in front of the viewer, sitting at a desk that feels more like an altar, with an open book of scripture, surrounded by a busy assortment of tubes, vials, mortar and pestles, a skull, a globe and — if you look closely — a Magic 8 Ball. A candle on the right and an oil lamp on the left ensure that the mystery of the scene is maintained.

Set up like a classical still life, Brown is playing with the curvature of the circular and elliptical forms. It is pretty obvious that these accessories, which include a gravy boat and a garden pitcher, are only to impress the observer rather than serve a useful role in science.

On the wall behind him are references to George Orwell and vocabulary that has only recently entered the popular lexicon such as “fake news.” The connection is obvious and really frightening. Language is being used as a weapon by our leaders to make our citizenry lame at discerning truth from fact. We see this loose relationship with reality in both science and politics, and especially where they overlap.

The man is signing to us with his left hand that he is the orator, and with the right that he is about to speak. We are in a moment of pause before a lecture that I’m sure would melt the brains of the most hardy.