Everything is Waiting March–April 2019, Sullivan + Strumpf

Everything is waiting. Waiting to be perceived, acknowledged, recognised or remembered. Drawn into some vortex of consumption to be captured, photographed, printed, uploaded and downloaded. Our experience of the world is deeply rooted in a global obsession with reproduced and digital images.

My only self-imposed stipulation for this exhibition was that the paintings be based on places or objects that I had personally encountered. Everyday houses, parks, petrol stations and flower arrangements being the most relevant, convenient and relatable subject matter.

These works are a conversation between remembering and experiencing. The subject matter is consumed, manipulated and reconstructed. The works are less an authentic likeness and more the product of a creative process borne out of experiencing the world through a 2D lens. A working method performed to mimic more mechanical modes of image reproduction, with the end result being a flattened, smooth and featureless surface. While retaining a sense of the familiar, the final image acquires a feeling of artifice and theatricality, conforming itself to the language of consumerist ideology.

These paintings are built up gradually as individually masked and stencilled shapes of flat colour. The image gradually reveals itself as something recognisable and familiar. The lack of gesture in the surface of the paintings, doesn’t conceal the evidence of hand crafting. The works are painted on board, resulting in a smoother and flatter surface than painting on canvas. The lines are sharper, the colour more luminous. The surface is ever so slightly illumined. The colour choices add to the sense of artifice and theatricality of the works. These paintings are an enhanced and choreographed view of the world which aim to acknowledge the illusionistic nature of painting and legitimise different ways of seeing.