So here I start my blog. Again. Completely forgot the previous incarnation of several years back, so i guess a recap is in order. It seems a logical as any to begin with some previous exhibitions and work my way back to the future.
www.suburbangothic.com
Burn - an overview of works
Burn explores the physical and metaphorical nature of pain and scarring in images created by the branding, burning and marking of surfaces by heat fire or charcoal. Pared back to its essential elements the gentle simplicity of the images belies the inherently complex and uncomfortable content of the exhibition.
Comprised of works in sculpture, installation, photography, and drawing, the large series of work makes repeated reference to the themes of destruction, abuse, consumption, sacrifice and redemption in the context of the body and the spirit, manifested through domestic media.
My initial concept began as a sort of cathartic expression of trauma. One of the most difficult images I have seen were medical photographs of an infant that had been held down upon an electric stove element, shown to me whilst studying social work. Burnt into the tender skin of the child's back was the unmistakable spiral 'coil' of an electric hotplate - the child was so small the wound covered much of her back.
It is from this point that I became obsessed with burns, and the imagery and form of the coil with its inherently cryptic swirl. It was as if each black spiral carried with it an aura of its potential energy and a mysterious history of heat. The familiar domestic object with a sinister undercurrent. The coil motif evolved into a metaphor for isolation, alienation and abandonment…the works bearing scars of a fractured and isolated suburban existence; where darkness lurks painfully close to surface..
www.suburbangothic.com
Burn - an overview of works
Burn explores the physical and metaphorical nature of pain and scarring in images created by the branding, burning and marking of surfaces by heat fire or charcoal. Pared back to its essential elements the gentle simplicity of the images belies the inherently complex and uncomfortable content of the exhibition.
Comprised of works in sculpture, installation, photography, and drawing, the large series of work makes repeated reference to the themes of destruction, abuse, consumption, sacrifice and redemption in the context of the body and the spirit, manifested through domestic media.
My initial concept began as a sort of cathartic expression of trauma. One of the most difficult images I have seen were medical photographs of an infant that had been held down upon an electric stove element, shown to me whilst studying social work. Burnt into the tender skin of the child's back was the unmistakable spiral 'coil' of an electric hotplate - the child was so small the wound covered much of her back.
It is from this point that I became obsessed with burns, and the imagery and form of the coil with its inherently cryptic swirl. It was as if each black spiral carried with it an aura of its potential energy and a mysterious history of heat. The familiar domestic object with a sinister undercurrent. The coil motif evolved into a metaphor for isolation, alienation and abandonment…the works bearing scars of a fractured and isolated suburban existence; where darkness lurks painfully close to surface..
1 comments:
Rather nice blog you've got here. Thank you for it. I like such themes and anything connected to them. BTW, try to add some photos :).
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