The set of paintings titled Common knowledge is a study on the life span of data and the impact of the huge volume of available data and information on the mechanism of human thinking. The average life span of a commonly accepted data is seven years.

This set is built on images collected from outdated encyclopedias, images depicting people in obsolete learning and working spaces/settings, teaching facts and employing methods that may no longer be considered appropriate. These are combined with random informative images collected from the web, the most controversial source of information.

All this produces a cerebral landscape consisting of new and dated data and settings, information and images, populated by the faceless inhabitants of encyclopedic pages, familiar yet evermore forgotten.

Paola Palavidi