Sleep in the Forest/ Dreams of the Sea
11- 29 March 2014 Eastside Gallery Christchurch.
Artist's Statement
This installation of large scale acrylic and oil on canvas paintings consists of representations of people sleeping and of the sea that are appropriated from pre-existing images.
The exhibition is a continuation of the ways in which my work appropriates popularist images and conflates these with the Western craft of painting. The work negotiates connections between traditional historical modes of painting, and contemporary hybrid arts practices such as appropriation, installation, and post-structural analyses of the visual image. The installation is designed to generate a visual, intellectual and emotional interest in the juxtaposed components both individually and in relation to each other.
In this series of paintings I am interested in juxtaposing the energy, rhythms and the patterns of the sea with images of sleep and the subconscious. Working against resolution or understanding, this circular motion creates a complexity of thought that can generate interest and significance. Connected by the act and craft of painting, the installation is both in debt to the past, and simultaneously connected to the present in a way that moves into the future. In this way painting can make reality significant- by connecting the past, present and the future with the shifting positionalities of the viewer and the world. Creating these connections, the installation calls into question linear notions of resolution, and our place in history, while respecting and honouring the realities of peoples' lives.
Drunk Man Oil ,
on canvas 1500 x 920
Sleeping Venus ,
Oil on canvas 1500 x 920
Sleeping Woman Courbet,
Oil on canvas 930x 1320
Sleeping soldier 1,
Oil on canvas 1500x 920
Sleeping soldier 2,
Oil on canvas 930 x 1320
Sleeping Boy in a Flood,
Oil on canvas 1500 x 920
Sleeping Baby,
Oil on canvas 780x 630
Southern Ocean 1,
Oil on canvas 2060x 1740
Southern Ocean 2,
Oil on canvas 1830x 1760