The Conservationist’s Dream

MOTIVATION

This series of work consists of 12 paintings. Hung grid-like on the studio wall- they get worked on simultaneously- all growing at the same time. Despite their individual preoccupations they are indispensible parts of an overarching narrative.

This work speaks of our relationship with nature, or rather; our unnatural relationship with the natural environment.

There is a feeling of imminent doom in these paintings- like when you’re stifling a laugh. Surfaces are tarred, creamed and oily, spewing or stitched, the colours contradict space, the compositions are tacky, the figures are somehow lost to their environments. Trees about to break, flooding, drought, cloning, seeds, agricultural disasters and cheap labour – these are things that feed into my work as subconscious influences. Here they take their clumsy footing along with the awkward colours and playful textures and framed within the arresting artificiality of the neon frames.

Exhibited in association with SMITH Gallery at the Cape Town Art Fair 2016.