Artist Bio
My work is predominantly focused on exploring systemic themes, be they social, political, lingual, material or meta-physical, within which I seek to highlight social relations and the dialectical interactions that are the source of change within the world. A key theme that underpins much of my work is the concept of power and class and how that finds expression in the structures that we create as a society and how it is reflected in the built environment around us. l often make drawings and paintings of specific buildings with a certain social significance and then layer them with multiple perspectives, abstracting the image to an extent in order to give expression to a deeper social meaning such as class consciousness or our relation to nature or the likes. These more philosophical concerns act mainly as a point of embarkation but which also fuel the evolution of my work throughout the creative process.
My work is often based on certain vexations towards the systemic forces that dominate contemporary society, but rather than concentrating on the negative associations of this, I prefer to look at the positive potentiality for progressive change. My work up to this point has consciously excluded figurative representations of the human form, as I'm more concerned with expressing the structural nature of systemic oppression that exist, rather than the subjective or individualistic experiences that each of us go through. My work possesses a strong Marxian influence which often underpins the social expression that I am aiming to incorporate into the work. These concerns are more about my own subjective input, they act as the driving force that under pins my creative process. My work tends to look at the common threads that exist between our manufactured environment and that of the natural world and the symbiotic structures that exist within this relationship.
Aesthetic concerns play a significant role in how the work finds expression, these deeper social and philosophical concerns at a certain point give way to the simplicity of creating a visually pleasing image or structure. Aesthetics I feel It are important with regard to our collective need for order and symmetry in relation to making a connection with the viewer. Which in essence is actually a material reflection of these deeper systemic themes that I an attempting to address. My work often tends to start off with a simple image, design or text that appeals to me, and through a process of drawing or writing it evolves and incorporates various different elements throughout, I tend not to start off with a comprehensive plan but rather a loose outline and I just let the project evolve as I go, this method allows the work to take on a life of its own which can lead to sometimes unexpected and interesting results.
