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Veils and
Filters
The conceptual basis of my work stems from a world-view that embraces reason, intuition and action as the expressions of an indivisible human reality. I believe that such a vision of wholeness may serve as the motivating force for the direction of these three aspects of the human soul in ways which empower humanity to transcend the limitations of a fragmented self-image, which I believe to be the result of attachment to incomplete concepts of itself. These concepts define the human race by various categories such as race, nationality, gender or religion, whilst failing to prioritize their fundamental human essence. Having emerged during our collective drive towards maturity, the tendency to measure humanity by such standards, whilst historically valid, can now be recognized as constituting a world-view which has in the face of increased global awareness and co-operation become effectively outmoded. The social fragmentation, which such an attachment now causes corresponds with an inner crisis within the individual psyche itself. I regard my work as an artist as both a natural product of the processes behind the realization of this new wholistic ideal and a conscious attempt to give them form. I believe my role as an artist operating within such a framework is to evoke an intuitive awareness of it by way of visual metaphor, rather than conveying the message in a rhetorical manner, or being satisfied with merely prompting a conceptual grasp of a static idea. I want my works to allow the viewer to locate its source subjectively within themselves: to be creatively engaged in a process of looking which points beyond immediate sensory experience to a realm of contemplation. Since the creation of a painting involves a process of abstraction so too must the stages in discovering its content. Since patterns of
change and growth are necessary aspects of any expressions of creative union, including
art-making, I have acknowledged them in my work; sometimes through the conscious decision
to use a particular symbol that might suggest them, and at other times by allowing traces
of random, even accidental movements to remain as parts of a finished piece. Historically,
the two most consistent metaphors that have been employed by artists and philosophers to
suggest principles of organic change are the human body and the natural environment –
at their most powerful when viewed not as static figure or ground, but as arenas for the
enactment of dynamic processes. But perhaps a more suitable expression of rationality, of
pure abstract conception is geometry; in many ways the basis of the man-made environment
and a symbol of modernity. What really interests me is the presence or imprint of one
within the other: the interpenetration of the body and its surrounding environment. On a
grander scale this suggests a deeper interaction between all natural and constructed
forms, instinctive responses and conscious actions. I am concerned with the possibility of
how, when viewed complementarily these two principles affirm each other, transcend their
own limitations and point towards a primal undivided reality. Such a vision implies a
resolution of dualities of form and content, order and chaos and a restoration of harmony
and balance. Art takes as its very premise the notion that physical reality can be viewed
as a metaphor for the intellectual faculties. Even in common speech, one may resort to
images of the “the head” and “the heart”. These polar expressions of
intellectual or spiritual reality have been historically defined as the analytical
and the intuitive, and often respectively characterized as masculine and feminine.
A rigid attachment to such imagery has significantly affected gender relations amongst
other things, contributing to the reductionist view of male and female social roles as
being solely determined by biology, rather than spirit. Though the relationship between
the rational and intuitive faculties is complementary – like that of male and female
– it is weakened by the fact that their respective function is often taken out of the
contextual whole. This has in turn led to the notion of an inherent conflict of interests
caused by the separate and wholly independent existence of both parts. This division
within the human soul finds its ultimate expression in social disintegration and suggests
a major misunderstanding of concepts of “indifference” on the primary level. The
transcendence of the dilemma is the subject of my work. Collage, by its very definition points towards new relationships between realities that were previously allocated a distinct and separate function, either as images or objects. To label such reconfigurations as incongruous suggests a subversion of mindset, an uncertainty over our power to recognize and define – not only the scene before us – but also more disturbingly – our place as conscious, reasonable subject within it. The Dadaists and Surrealists first capitalized on the medium’s inherent potential for re-ordering the world, in order to expose the deeper causal relationships underpinning its social conventions. The experience of living and working as a visual artist in China is another investigation of definitions, boundaries, and deciphering essence from attributes. I regard my life in China and my work as an artist as being expressions of the same creative process. Each day offers juxtapositions of incident, image and idea that similarly demonstrate the principles and concepts I am addressing in my work. To illustrate them literally would be to adopt an exterior position and detract from the common spirit that informs my relationship to my environment. My work has its own syntax and its basis is broad enough to absorb fresh elements in ways that relate to its primary universal concerns. I find parallel dialogues taking place within the growing diversity of thought amongst the Chinese themselves and, on a more intensive level within our own exchanges – defined as they might be elsewhere, by preconceived notions of ethic, racial, national, religious, political or economic classification. As an artist, I personally find questioning such notions exhilarating and insightful. Perhaps the singularly most creative act that today’s increasingly interdependent world calls for is one of perception. I believe that the greatest challenge facing us at the beginning of the third millennium is to embrace the manifold expressions of humanity as the voices of one spirit, and to have the moral conviction to recognize that spirit in whatever form we find it. |
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