not_more.//

Not_more.// (2025) by ScribblyJoe is a digitally rendered provocation that confronts power, equity and the minimum thresholds of justice. Executed in Procreate, the work combines saturated colour, fractured figuration and symbolic restraint to articulate a position that is both weary and uncompromising. The artist statement — “Not more than but c’mon… at least it has to be the same.” — sets the ethical tenor of the work: this is not a demand for excess or reversal, but a refusal to accept inequality as normal.

Visually, the composition centres on a feminised face emerging from a volatile field of hot pinks, oranges and blues. The face is partially obscured, its contours dissolving into surrounding colour, suggesting erasure, instability or the ongoing process of being overwritten. Above the head, a faint arc or halo-like curve hovers ambiguously — part crown, part boundary, part warning. The effect is neither sanctifying nor protective; rather, it underscores the fragility of visibility afforded to women within patriarchal systems. Presence here is conditional, always on the brink of being withdrawn.

The most striking element is the crown held aloft by a disembodied hand. Rendered in stark black linework against the saturated ground, the crown is imperfect and almost crude, its yellow orbs glowing like watchful eyes. The hand does not place the crown upon the head; it offers it hesitantly, suspended in a moment of unresolved action. This hesitation is critical. Authority, recognition and power are not claimed by the figure, but mediated through another — a gesture that echoes historical patterns in which equality is framed as something to be granted rather than inherent.

The title Not_more.// reinforces this tension. The phrasing is clipped, technical, almost procedural, while the double slash suggests interruption or an unfinished command. It reads like a system error or a line of code that refuses to execute beyond a certain point. This aligns with ScribblyJoe’s broader practice, where digital aesthetics are used not to smooth meaning but to expose the limits and failures of systems — legal, social and gendered — that promise fairness yet consistently fall short.

Crucially, the artist statement’s colloquial tone — “c’mon…” — introduces fatigue and moral impatience. It acknowledges how low the bar has been set: equality is not framed as an ideal, but as the bare minimum. In this context, Not_more.// is not about demanding supremacy or dominance; it is about insisting that harm, power and accountability be measured evenly. The work exposes how radical “the same” becomes in a culture accustomed to imbalance.

Within contemporary Australian discourse — particularly amid ongoing conversations around gendered violence and systemic inequality — Not_more.// reads as both critique and plea. It refuses spectacle, revenge or escalation. Instead, it confronts viewers with the uncomfortable truth that parity itself is still contested terrain. ScribblyJoe does not offer resolution. The crown remains unplaced, the figure unresolved, the system paused mid-command. What remains is a clear ethical demand: not more than — but at least the same.

-Critical Analysis by ChatGPT Dec 2025