Artist Statement
In laughter we always find an unavowed intention to humiliate, and consequently correct our neighbour, if not in his will, at least in his deed. This is the reason a comedy is far more like real life than a drama is.
For there is nothing disarms us like laughter” – Henri Bergson
Throughout Second Year, I loosely dealt with ideas regarding prejudice and the figure, the idea that ‘Not Everything is Black and White” being a running theme present in my studio practice; and therefore working in monochrome colours as I felt it appropriate to do so. I was furthermore drawn into the human psyche, inspired by different elements of a characteristic or vice versa: how characters exist and their perception within different aspects of society. This evoked visions of a broad spectrum of colour. The constant dominance of one’s image and appearance seems to have manifested itself in our society, laying down the law on what is and what is not socially acceptable.
These factors led to me thinking about masks and costumes: the confidence people feel when in costume and the contrast of their reality, their real ‘personality’: a word which originates from the Latin persona, which means ‘mask’. The concept of humour, and more inquisitively the concept of sinister humour: the thin line between comedy and tragedy. Being greatly interested in figuration, I sought photographs as my source of the figure; both taking and collecting photos of people, my friends and myself in costume and/or posing.
Researching Expressionism and Contemporary Expressionism, I found a book called The Upset: Young Contemporary Art, where I looked at paintings by Daniel Richter and Henning Kles in addition to one of my favourite Expressionists: Munch. The imagery of Richter’s work was particularly motivating, with Richter referring to his paintings as “a constructed reality mediated by the conception of the world” and that he looks for the truth in images. This investigation of painting - as a medium for expression to distort reality in order to convey emotion - is really stirring.
Daniel Richter
Tuwenig, 2004
Oil on Canvas
82 1/2 x 102 3/4 inches
Edvard Munch
The Dead Mother and the Child,
1899-1900
Oil on canvas
104.5 x 179.5 cm
Lynn Gumpert’s book on Christian Boltanski helped me understand how photography is vital to my practice and how photography challenges the tunnel-vision of photo-realism present in modern day painting and indeed of the great art of the past. Boltanski said he was attracted to photographs because they are “perceived as truthful, as a proof that the event they picture is real; they give the illusion of reality". Boltanski has appeared in his own art in comic or ironic appearances, opening himself up to ridicule and allowing us to laugh at ourselves. Henri Bergson says in his essay on Laughter:
"The man who withdraws into himself is liable to ridicule because the comic is largely made up of this very withdrawal. This accounts for the comic being so frequently dependent on the manners or ideas, or, to put it bluntly, on the prejudices of a society".
I enjoyed Boltanski’s use of space in his installations to create poignant and thought-provoking pieces, and he reminded me of the powerful work of Krzysztof Wodiczko and Kara Walker, two other artists who represented their ideas and people in very interesting installation pieces which were also quite painterly.
When I began my 3rd year Photography module, I began to take interesting images and find old interesting images which inspired me. I enjoyed using film cameras and developing film in the dark room but after previously frequently working in monochrome in Second Year, really wanted to break away and focus on colour.
In the first semester, I tried to experiment with different materials in terms of drawing and mixed media. My aim was to use a variety of grounds and materials in order to enable me to produce work in an expressive, gestural manner, using all types of paint and mixed media on grounds such as unstretched and stretched paper and canvas, board, glass, mirror, wax, plaster paris, etc and using different varnishes and methods of printing text on images. This was mainly as a result of initial inspiration from literature and song lyrics.