Statement

My work is primarily the investigation of how we perceive space. I feel that space is the most important aspect a painter can deal with and my work is primarily influenced by an idea that Leo Steinberg first raised in 1968: that of the ‘;Brain City’ in that “the picture plane abandons its appeal to upright posture and frontal vision as in the classical window of the world. Opaque, tiltable, mixing disparate elements, no longer governed by figure/ground of near/far relations of projection… it acquires a new function: it becomes an operational device and abstract machine for the consciousness immersed in the brain city” (Steinberg in ‘Encounters with Rauschenberg'). I primarily use different formal and pictorial devices to examine how space can be manipulated and I used maps as a conduit to my investigation. Maps, like painting, offer a way of understanding the world, albeit in a much more pragmatic way. Maps are accepted as a universal language, as representations of reality and most importantly, they help us not only to understand notions of space, but about the world we live in; cultures and geographic identities as well as the understanding of the dawning of a more globalised world are based on their shifting boundaries. I use the abstract information I get from maps to create 'abstract events' reflective of the human journey through life we all have in common.