Statement
I am currently developing a new body of work that is an exploration of the individual and their perceptions of reality, focusing on the how the recurring motifs of the outside world may alter and impact on the inner ideals and morals of even the most incorruptible and faithful. Through the use of symbolism I aim to convey/challenge people’s perceptions of each other.
The symbol of the fly has been used since early times as a recurring representation of evil, plague and pestilence, the Greek God, Myiagros, is the God of Flies and Fly–Swatting, the Fourth Plague of Egypt brought forth a swarm of flies:
Exodus 8:24
And the LORD did so; and there came grievous swarms of flies into the house of Pharaoh, and into his servants' houses: and in all the land of Egypt the land was corrupted by reason of the swarms of flies.
More frequently flies are used as a symbol of our own morality and insignificance, as in Shakespeare’s, King Lear “ …as flies to wanton boys, are we th’ gods;
They kill us for their sport.”
And in Emily Dickinson poem, Dying:
I heard a fly buzz when I died:
The stillness round my form
Was like the stillness in the air
the heaves of storm.
The death in this poem is painless, yet the vision of death it presents is horrifying, even gruesome. The appearance of an ordinary, insignificant fly at the climax of a life at first merely startles and disconcerts us. But by the end of the poem, the fly has acquired dreadful meaning.
Through the use of symbolism I am creating large mixed media wall pieces which combine a range of techniques including: drawing, screen printing, etching, painting and vinyl cutouts to create pieces that surround the viewer, as the pieces grow and spread from floor to wall and ceiling. I aim to take print out of the frame, off the canvas and directly into the surrounding physical space blurring the line between print and the space it occupies.
The medium that I work in is an integral element of the concept in terms of the overall communication. The use of aluminium along with a slick smooth impermeable print finish is juxtaposed with wallpaper, which most commonly provides a backdrop in our everyday domestic setting. Think wallpaper, and we think of warm, familiar, maternal, cozy interiors that are unassumingly, ever present elements of a home, unobserved and merged into the background, its innate repetition acts as a camouflage, or possibly a whispered message cloaked in invisibility. The wallpapers, and other works, are all consuming, at first glance they portray a benign decorative aesthetic, but on closer examination a darker less obvious message is implied.
Pattern and colour are a significant element in my work, through the use of pattern the conformity of the masses is juxtaposed with the individual, and although the arrangement of repeated parts may seem to be regimented, random exceptions are evident as the search for perfection is unattainable.
I use certain colours, and bold, synthetic pigments, that have underlining sinister connotations, such as Scheele’s Green and its associations with the deaths of thousands of people in the 1800’s due to its high arsenic content. During his exile on the island of St. Helena, Napoleon spent his time in a room painted this very green (green being the colour of the Imperial), hastening his death. A certain white paint earned the name of Inheritance White, due to its use on rich relatives homes by the next in line to inherit.