'New Work'

Much of my work embraces the migrant’s view of the world - of uprooting and transformation, disjuncture and metamorphosis (slow or rapid, painful or pleasurable) of what Salman Rushdie calls “the migrant’s condition [from which] can be derived a metaphor for humanity”. My visual vocabulary is the slow process of documenting and considering the commonplace and everyday around me. Out of the regional is derived the metaphor to describe what is universal and international. The familiar describes more than it’s subject. In the employment of my materials and methods - the history of the creative process, the congealing of the paints and the graffito of the form - is essential to the description of the subject matter. The paint is intentionally and unintentionally dribbled or spattered to energize the painting, taking on the qualities of patina rather than paint - as in ritual objects. The materials are built up and extruded in layers to pucker or stretch in their drying process, to symbolize the decaying process of history and it’s cover up. The combination of the materials is not only used for its final visual effect, but is also a necessary component to describe the content. The use of water and strong solvents of turpentine, thinners and acids as well as salts opens a wide range of possible applications of very basic industrial and ceramic materials. In this manner I combine sculpture, painting and drawing with the intention of transcending the normal aims of representational painting - the illusion of the three dimensional. The materials I use are:- bitumen, alkyd, oil, fired clay, chamotte, salts, plaster of paris, silicone, gold leaf, glazes, lead and shellac. The work for this exhibition does not have a central point of focus. Thematically it is a wandering through a number of central themes which have been part of my 30 year career as an artist. In a way constructing a memory of my work’s past in order to inaugurate a new practice for the present. The subject of history, memory, geography, identity and nationalism is still present in these works. In all art work there exists traces of its birth (the idea) and its death (the completion). The work in its failure - and it always fails - will still illuminate, the greatness and splendour of what it can never accomplish, and as an artist, this leads one to the next work. [click on images for further information]