Jerking Off The Dog To Feed The Cat is comprised of 16 paintings of 1960s agitprop posters sourced from diverse and conflicting causes. Their scale is random and denotes no significance, and their ordering is purely aesthetic. By rendering them in greyscale, and in increasingly deteriorating gestures, MacKinven opens up spaces for possibility between their form and meaning. In repainting propaganda designs, MacKinven takes a performative role as an artist. Inspired by the structural game-play of Jasper Johns, who painted the words of colours in their opposing hues, MacKinven’s black and white palette similarly neutralises the sentiment of his logos. This approach to making establishes a ‘clean’ contextual foundation from which the artist can explore his own stance. As MacKinven explains, “It allows me the possibility to paint from every political position. It’s a way for me to do feminist, right wing, or black power painting.”