This is a new version of a piece I originally did thirty years ago as a large painting on canvas. It's based on a "paint by numbers" painting I found in a thrift store, probably from the 1950's.
At the time, I was thinking about Edward Said's idea of "Orientalism" (the colonialist romanticization of Asia and the Middle East) in relation to a lot of old pop culture I'd cut my teeth on as a young kid (especially science fiction books and movies about conquering alien planets and creating empires -- which I loved). I added myself to the piece as a "tourist" in a guilty nod to all that.
The painted version I did in 1992 was made in a hardcore "Conceptual Art" way - other than adding the self-portrait, all I did was enlarge the found painting, carefully matching all the old colours. It was pretty impressive (8 feet wide!) but I always wished it had more going on visually, so I added a lot of painterly detail this time.