These paintings are scene-setting for a greater body of work detailing an overriding psychotic narrative. I am interested in story-telling with the unconscious visuals that surface when a dream landscape becomes waking reality; in much the same way that the images within an illustrated children’s book when read together, might articulate the story should no text be provided.
In preference to the `white cube’ aesthetic, I aim to create (where able) an entire world of exhibition space within which the art may stand. In this regard, visual elements from the paintings make their way into the room around oneself and provide a better sense of psychotic clutteredness.
This creation of an entire world is an example of my resonance and pull towards a type of visual that most inspires me, often found within outsider art. `Art brut’ or `outsider art’ is an attempt to define art produced by people on the fringe of society - often untrained, and often bordering on the edge of sanity. The idea of a visionary visual mission and always sourced back to the spiritual is where I feel most at home.
This notion of mission and need to tell some form of story, becomes alive during psychosis and in the aftermath, may be understood as one’s own psyche needing to resolve some issue by telling a story to itself. It is also a confrontation with a part of one’s being that believes it might be the centre of some game; some story; some universe - at once both an exhilarating and terrifying concept, and one that needs to be confronted in order to achieve real rationality and real humility in relation to ultimate creation. Despite having formal art training, my goal is not to fit within contemporary theoretical parameters, but rather to produce work that both God (by my own definition) and I might be proud of.
work by myself, pierre, liza, christopher and norman (in order).
once upon a time there was a dark man in a tower telling a story
something about a lion that fell asleep
then something bad happened (can't remember this part)
but someone/something saved the day
the end