Artist statement

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The work I predominately make takes aspects of popular culture to satirise contemporary rituals and occurrences. The core motivation is critical and judgmental; satire is open, truthful, direct and ridicules. The ironic and sarcastic content that tends to reappear in my work, I find to be a coping mechanism which helps us tackle sensitive issues. Furthermore, I believe satire is revelatory, and thus helping us to access or restore a deeper sense of humanity. I would like to think that my subject matter beyond anything is centred on human interests and values. Ideas of contrast, polarity, and division are in addition thematically very important. Polarity for example, functions as a starting point to eventually create a visual schism, which scaffolds the composition.

Over the last year, I have increasingly approached paintings as reliefs. Collage can be used not only as an addition to a piece, but simultaneously as a withdrawal of what was previously underneath. This hierarchy of layering is of great interest to me. It’s almost an admission procedure or an audition, as the more competent elements will have a place on the painting. Furthermore, I like to envisage the painting as a main stage; a lot of the work happens outside of the spotlight, which isn’t dissimilar to a rehearsal. For instance, collage adds a theatricality to works, as the subjects are not innate to their surroundings, they are unnatural to the background: they stick out. I am interested in creating this delusion of perspective. I welcome this as it creates tension within the space, a depiction of the split second before friction. I want to generate this allusion that time is constipated. Furthermore, this questions the space and time of collaged elements, it asks where were they, and where will they be. This creates a fragmentation of imagery in the work, which aims to intensify an entropic value to the compositions.

Reprocessing my works is also a relevant part of my practice. This entails taking what I regard as the successful elements from old paintings and incorporating them into new ones, adopting a kind of ‘drop and drag’ procedure, with the intent to enlighten the newer work.

Another important part of my process is to introduce manufactured components into compositions. This adds an impersonal element as it is universally understood, and as a result enables everyone to relate. Once one can identify themselves to something, they feel more comfortable with it, and therefore it tricks them into being empathetic towards the painting. The found, or mass-produced materials function as a portal that bridges our world, to the world inside the painting. This is the kind of intangible interaction I am interested in creating.

I have always been captivated by dramatic visual art, works that employ immediate impact. I find myself preoccupied by a pictorial plot; I like to think of my work as having multiple scenes taking place at different times. This is similar to comic strip with borderless vignettes, however the narrative is conserved. It is imperative to have a sense of time within the form in order to play with parody.

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