Much of the work is playful, though some pieces exhibit a darker side, as well. My principal preoccupation, to quote Bridget Riley, is not so much what the viewer sees, but how they are made to see it. My process is not to do with illustrating an idea, more a journey of discovery, a positioning of myself in relation to ideas. It’s the language, rather than the message, that constitutes the work.
I do not aim to transmit meaning in any sort of objective sense. Instead I’m involved in a process of proposal, encompassing the possibilities, uncertainties and ambiguities evoked by the shape of the language on the canvas and its idiosyncratic form. The work suggests that we can come at the world from different, sometimes odd, sometimes unique, angles. I am placing myself, to quote the painter Basil Beattie, on the brink of suggestion when making a connection between the canvas and the real world beyond. My interest in the alternative languages of visual art has led on to a third body of work, which partly employs figurative imagery involving “real” objects and scenes, and exploits more definite external cultural references. These are nonetheless still overlaid with surreal, abstract or ambiguous narratives. |
