 These are examples of my recent series, Walls. Many of my compositions of opposites attract include various types of boundaries , which separate natural and man-made areas. This led me to explore other types of barriers, specifically walls built defensively in area of conflict and political tension. These include the ruins of ancient walls and today’s security barriers, border controls and wartime fronts.
Such walls are built to control the uncontrollable, thus forming a symbiotic relationship that is very much part of opposites attract. Pictorially, I depict this control by laying out a traditional Golden Section composition as the background of each painting. With this in place, I can conceptually and perceptually develop the opposition of conflict, chaos and disruption which is inherent in my subject matter.
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A storm-like effect of roughly textured surface treatment over the whole canvas reflects Berlin's history. Against this backdrop I have painted diagonal rows of precisely rendered memorials to those who died trying to cross the River Spree when the Berlin Wall was in place.
Concrete walls often invite graffiti and here I’ve set up an opposition in the way with which I applied the paint.; an aggressive stroke of black exterior Trem Clad paint obliterates a delicately rendered surface.
This painting, titled after the film of the same name, is based on the unsuccessful attempt by the Allies to penetrate the German front at Arnhein Bridge in 1944. I applied the theme of opposites attract to the idea of a porous barrier with a randomly lit, and roughly textured background of conflict, obstruction and retreat.
All Fall Down - as in Humpty Dumpty – has led to another series of Wall paintings; the physical collapse of even the strongest defensive walls. This focuses on the inevitably temporary nature of such constructions. In turn, this has become a play on the illusion of the painted image itself. Thus, in All Fall Down, randomly lit images are collaged onto an overlay of thin cotton which is then attached to a wooden panel by straight pins. Fragments of wall are both painted and drawn as linear ‘space frames’, including and excluding area divisions, like enclosed rooms or prisons.
Titles: Icarus' Wall, Façade I and II, Walls To Go, Wipe It Out.
Subjects of recent paintings have moved from an exterior to interior focus. The confines of a physical wall have become those of attitude. I interpret some of the psychological motivations behind the building of a defensive wall within in the mind and the imagination when confronted with fear, threat and the unknown.
Layering a spatial interplay of surface tensions with illusions of confinement can act as a foil for spontaneous throwaway gestures of thoughtlessness and disregard. Elsewhere, planes of movement, light, colour and form give a sense of space which may or may not exist beyond a wall. These invite an audience's considered response and most important of all, create a place for a personal viewpoint. |
