Redfern 1986        Artist's Statemement                                  

return to main page

Catalogue

The work in this exhibition attempts to reflect upon the loss of that primary poetic experience in a world dominated by Television, Bureaucracy, Logic and Reason. That poetic experience is imperative to the experience of a painting and any other form of art.

The subject of 'The Green Man' and 'Woman in the Landscape' was my effort to hold on to and to represent that loss of a primary poetic moment missing in modern everyday life; especially today with the advent of the internet. This poetic moment is what the artist searches for: seeking to find that vivid form for all that is manifold in the initiation and process of developing a work.

I was also attracted to the ambiguity of meaning attached to the word green. The Green Man is central to this exhibition and in some respects it could be said to be a self-portrait even though I was not the model.

I have tried to hold onto that curiosity for all things 'natural' in danger of being lost to the power of reason and human development. The 'Death of the Indian' in North America is a good example of this and has weighed heavily on me for this reason: a people lived with nature rather than trying to change it; this is the feeling underlying the painting "Richmond Park".

The incredible sadness in the face of the Greek statue of the Boxer I used for the painting 'The Boxer' seemed to sum up all that I felt about the loss of innocence and the pointlessness of human consciousness; always seeking to improve on things in a world in love with the synthetic nature of visual communication that we were all entering into.

The concept of the essential element of the woman coupled with the essential element of water in life represented the significance of the feminine principle in every aspect of the world that I, as a male, can only hazard a guess at. 'The Beaver Pool' is an attempt to lighten that thought. Gender issues have been at the forefront of my mind from an early age as well as politically during my subsequent lifetime; fuelled by the powerful influence of my mother who had to fend for herself for most of her life, most critically during my childhood.