You cannot put a fire out; a thing that can ignite
Can go, without a fan, upon the slowest night.
You cannot fold a flood, and put it in a drawer,-
Because the winds would find it out, and tell your cedar floor
Emily Dickenson
It’s incredibly frustrating working on net. Like the texture of memory, there is no firm grip, no easy control. The surface that should hold things together disintegrates, slipping away from under your fingers.
“Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious.”
George Orwell, 1984
Life is a series of repeated cycles of creation and destruction. I turned 40 and noticed that things fall apart (!). It was time to make my own ‘quilt’, a visual signifier of the hope that beauty can still be created from the fragmented pieces left in my hands.
noun
The point at which a series of small changes or incidents becomes significant enough to cause a larger, more important change.
Humanity likes imposing ‘order’ on the fabric of Nature. This I’ve symbolised by folding these artworks. We organise our environment to produce great advances in our civilisation, yet at the same time trigger catastrophic events.
Just as these artworks are difficult to read once folded, so it is difficult to read the lines of cause and effect in our manipulations of the world.
“And then one morning the ground shifted”
Days that turn out to be life altering start out mundane. Nothing whispers a warning of the coming curveball.
There is wisdom in knowing when to don your armour, and when to bare it all. Humanity is both predator and prey.
Loss is part of life.
The resulting 'blank space' is as powerful as the physicality that once filled it. It is the mark of significant absence and, like a phantom limb, is felt daily.
In the aftermath, thoughts are reevaluated, orbiting adjusted paths around the new non-entity.
Otis Figurative Arts Residency, Los Angeles
This 6m long drawing was an experiment in stop motion animation.
I had thought the South African context was complex and layered, but once placed in an American context, I quickly realised that every country has it’s nuances and problems! This drawing was an attempt to come to terms with the experience.
Womens War Memorial, Bloemfontien
When men go to war, women remain and nurture life. When times are truly tough, collapsing in despair is not an option. This is a painting of my inner circle. These women keep me upright when times are hard.
A series of self-portraits.
Bringing my thoughts, words and actions into alignment. Just as there is co-ordinated movement of the two eyes to focus on the image of a single point, so I try to move towards a comfortable unity of inner and outer selves.
Between or belonging to two different places, states, etc
In Anthropology, liminal refers to the middle stage of rituals, when you no longer hold your pre-ritual status but have not yet begun the transition to the status held when the ritual is complete. You are standing ‘at the threshold’ between your previous way of structuring identity, time, or community; and a new expression.
These works are about the potential for growth in the “in-between” places. By mixing different mediums, boundaries are blurred and new solutions are possible. The liminal space is filled with ambiguities and contradictions, disruption and disorientation. I believe discomfort can be endured if there is hope for growth.
