2015
Dear Family
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There is a certain atmosphere in the house on most days, when my family is out and the rooms bear only traces of their passage. During these hours the house is peaceful and saturated with quiet. There is a lot of white, bare wall for light to play on. The enveloping quiet and light can be both beautiful and suffocating, calming and maddening - illuminating very clearly the spaces thick with my family's absence.
White wall paint is my metaphor for the silence and my solitude in the house. I lay it atop a fully painted canvas, using a roller to imitate the texture of the walls. I enjoy the ambiguity of the bright whiteness - it is cleansing and anonymous, and results in a serene, subtle aesthetic. Yet the layers of paint also allude to the stifling quality of silence. Here, silence acquires weight. |
Dear Parents
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Weight series
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Dad's Hands (6th January) & Dad's Hands (7th January)
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This is an ongoing project.
My parents buy bread for the family's breakfast on most days. They leave the bread in its bag on the table. My dad is often overseas, but when he's back he insists on tying the knot of the bag in this particular way so it is easier for the rest of us to undo. When he is away the bags are tied however we prefer. These knots are easily overlooked, the gesture trivial. Yet they are markers of my dad's presence or absence; they are evidence of his affection. I have found it worthwhile to observe and document these knots, first with photography, then painting, then through a collection of the physical bags from January to March 2015. |