As I grew up, I forgot how to play. I rediscovered it as an artist. I paint and scratch deceptively simple figures onto abandoned, bruised metal pipes. I am exploring the nostalgia, fear and joy of everyday life. The work is often heartbreakingly sad with a childlike incomprehension. Scribbled into being.
As adults we think we should know what life’s all about but really we don’t. But while the work evokes this it’s not all downbeat. There is a sense of playful subversion, of rebelling against the rules that tell us how we ought to be.
It encompasses an intuitive, seemingly naive yet deeply thoughtful aesthetic. As artists we translate our inner world thoughts and feelings out into the real world. And they can change in this birthing process.
These aren’t subtle pieces hiding in a corner. They are in your face – risking scorn and ridicule as well as affirmation. While the scale is toy like or conversely larger than life – making the viewer feel childlike as if an adult was peering down at them. Owning the space they occupy. Firmly planted. Possessing an enigmatic duality of attraction and repulsion to the viewer.
My practice isn’t constrained to one medium or method. I have used clay, bathroom sealant, toys, syringes and toasters in previous works. Currently I am creating works at the boundary of painting and sculpture.
Philip Guston said making a painting in the beginning everyone is in the studio – which is like all your thoughts and preoccupations . Gradually everyone leaves. Finally the artist leaves too – then the painting happens. That’s how I make my works.
They share Walid Ardhaoui’s theme of the loss of childhood innocence inherent to adulthood. We both invite the viewer to contemplate the complexities of our world and our place within it.
I’m employing Prosopopeia – giving a voice to inanimate objects has at the same time the implied threat that we could be struck dumb. Wearing a metal head with its painted on, sealed mouth and only a tiny hole to peer at the Tubies. We become part of the art.
Each work is a narrative on the complexities of what it means to be alive in a society in which the pretence that we can all have perfect lives hides so much misery and fear.
Referencing my memories of growing up in suburbia. These apparently ordinary snapshots of domestic life on closer inspection have an undercurrent. Alluding to the violence prevalent in contemporary cartoons Tom and Jerry, Roobarb and Custard. It is infused with that period’s pop culture. Nostalgic but knowing. There are no rose-tinted spectacles in play here. The work is anarchic and seeks to portray the inner turmoil often hidden from sight.
It acknowledges Life’s harshness and random cruelties. While still finding some bittersweet humour even joy to sweeten the pill. As artists we struggle to make sense of it all and that’s all we can do. Or go and make a nice cup of tea.
Click to see my CURRICULUM VITAE
