MAGICAL REALISM
TITLE: SIX
March 2020
The snake and birds are a homage to an image taken from the
book Walton Ford: Pancha Tantra, published by Taschen.
The pencil on paper face portrait of the man is a copy of a
photographic image of Bill Brandt from the book David Bailey published by Taschen
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The detailed face juxtaposed with the more abstract, lesser detailed imperfect portrayal of the snake and birds are influenced by the principle of Wabi Sabi, the celebration of imperfection.
The birds are spatially parted using the principle of Ma. In traditional Japanese arts and culture, Ma refers to the artistic interpretation of an empty space, often holding as much importance as the rest of an artwork and focusing the viewer on the intention of negative space in an art piece. Each share presence on the same canvas yet seem separated and self isolated. The blackened background, the empty space, gives no sense of perspective and depth and so adds further to the sense of detachment.
TITLE: THREE
January 2020
The child is taken from The Charteris Children, 1777 painted by George Romney. The framed face portrait of the Indian Maharajah is taken from the cover of the book titled Vintage Photography, Pioneers of Photography, Early Travel and Exploration, published by Roland Belgrave. The pencil on paper face portrait of the standing woman taken from Africa: National Geographic - Around the World in 125 Years, published by Taschen.
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The detailed faces juxtaposed with the more abstract, lesser detailed imperfect portrayal of the bodies and background are an homage to the principle of Wabi Sabi, which in traditional Japanese aesthetics, is a world view centered on the acceptance of transience and imperfection. The aesthetic is sometimes described as one of beauty that is "imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete".
The three figures are spatially parted by using the principle of Ma. Each share presence on the same canvas yet seem separated and self isolated. Ma, a Japanese word, translates as gap, space, pause or the space between two structural parts. In traditional Japanese arts and culture, Ma is more correctly defined as the suggestion of an interval.
TITLE: TWO
January 2020
The water buffalo is after a lead glazed earthenware figure decorated in underglaze manganese oxide, c. 1760 presented in the book Cattle: History, Myth and Art by Catherine Jones published by The British Museum. The pencil on paper portrait of the mermaid’s face is a copy of the photographic portrait of the Danish author Isak Dinesen Karen Blixen taken by Richard Avedon, found online at The Richard Avedon Foundation.
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The hyper realistic face is juxtaposed with the surreal, portrayal of the fish body. The buffalo and mermaid are separated and self isolated in their own space, yet the landscape that they are positioned in, ties them together. The positioning also does not reveal their scale. All sense of perspective and depth has been lost.
The detailed image of Blixen reveals the texture of her skin, bought about by old age. Western aesthetics and morals, often do not find beauty in age. However, through the Eastern lens of Wabi Sabi a grace, beauty and refinement can be found in the imperfections of her wrinkles.
TITLE: FOUR
January 2021
All four figures [the seated wise sage, the sun God Ra, tree and horse] are sourced from images found in the book titled: The Arts of the Sikh Kingdoms, edited by Susan Stronge.​
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The composition strings together figures sourced from non-Western images. The four have been spatially parted by using the principle of Ma. Each share presence on the same canvas yet seem separated and self isolated, each seeming independent of each other yet bound physically by the canvas space.
The wise Sage is associated with religious imagery of Sikh and Hindu art from the 16th century. The colour blue is significant because the pigment lapis lazuli was rare at the time. It was used by artists global to depict divinity.
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The horse is inspired from a scene in the book Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky. The narrative's protagonist, Raskolnikov, prior to committing the crime, has his first dream with the horse. This dream permits the reader a psychological insight into Raskolnikov's conflicting feelings about the forthcoming crime: the moral conviction that the murder can be committed and yet his innocence recoils from this deplorable attack.
TITLE: EIGHT
January 2024
​The composition strings together three portrait figures, the juxtaposition of the two profile and the headshot portraits.
The profile portrait of the African woman has been spatially parted by using the principle of Ma.
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The horse is inspired from a scene in the book Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky, as in the work titled FOUR.