| Much of the imagery in this painting is
based on graphic scenery derived from posters promoting the London
Underground in the early to mid-20th century illustrating the allure of the
countryside. Idyllic pastoral vistas are rich and welcoming, the countryside
is clean and bountiful. Whether or not this idealised view ever existed at
all, it still persists in the public imagination, despite immense social
change. Here, the cyphers of this vision are arranged in such a way that they
take on a more stage-like arrangement, mostly non-congruent, multi-layered
and shallow. The angler fish-like creature floating in the lake/hole is the
thing that lurks; it doesn’t settle in to the imagery and despite it being
centred in the painting – it goes more often than not unnoticed. Scratching
away at my painting is a way for me to disrupts the illusory language of the
surface, a literal removal of the positive elements of the painting (it’s
physical materiality) and in so doing emphasising a kind of negative and much
colder barren place, pre-language and, in this instance, brrrr…. cold. |
Spectre of the Real 