Completed Quartet: 'Sick 1'

Finally, I can post about my own work again.  Since starting this blog last December I’ve worked on a set of paintings that seemed slow to complete.  Last year I produced several larger pieces quite rapidly, so these recent months have been somewhat frustrating.  Getting ill twice didn’t help - ironic, given the title of this set is ‘Sick 1’.

'Sick 1', 2012, Acrylics & Paper Collage on 4 Panels, 
60 cm X 300 cm (Overall), 60 cm X 60 cm (Each Panel)

The four panels are designed to hang together in a quartet, spelling out the title with a single character on each.  It was completing the ‘Safe From Harm 1’ triptych last summer that suggested another multi-panel project and the attendant challenge of composing each element whilst maintaining a balance across the whole.

'Sick 1 (S)', 2012, Acrylics & Paper Collage on Panel, 60cm X 60cm

The genesis of the ‘Sick’ theme was in the news reports of last summer’s riots.  As with ‘Together 1’ and ‘Broken 1’ it became a regular descriptor of our society amongst politicians and media commentators reacting to the disturbing events.  As buildings were burned and looted it seemed Britain was not just ailing but descending into actual psychosis.  Perhaps most disturbing, (in the media’s portrayal of events), were the seeming nihilism of the rioters and how, amongst a tech-savvy generation reputedly lacking core values outside of consumerism, exhortations to riot spread between phones rapidly like a virus.

'Sick 1 (I)', Acrylics & Paper Collage on Panel, 60cm X 60cm

Conflicting explanations for the disorder multiplied in its wake.  Without any coherent ideological framework of my own, I prefer to observe and reflect such societal issues obliquely in my work. There are profound dangers for the artist in over-explaining work or espousing too fixed a viewpoint through it.  However, it’s no secret that a significant part of my current agenda is the exploration of clues to such issues expressed through urban surfaces and text fragments.  The four ‘Sick 1’ elements evolved to each have a different observational reference point whilst contributing to the whole thematically.  I’ll post again soon to discuss each panel in detail.

                               Sick 1 (C)', 2012, Acrylics & Paper Collage on Panel, 60cm X 60cm                            

In the titles and textual content of my paintings I’m most drawn to phrases with an inherent ambiguity and multiple possible meanings.  It’s worth noting then that ‘Sick’ is a slang term used habitually by the school students I work amongst, (and who belong to the age group of some of last year’s rioters).  Like ‘Wicked’ and, significantly, ‘Ill’, it transforms a negative connotation into an expression of approval or enjoyment.  A further level of delightful complexity arrives with the phrase ‘Well Sick’ with its internal conflation of traditionally opposing terms.  I’m toying with the idea of a future quartet spelling ‘Well’ to create an eight-piece ‘Well/Sick’ suite.

Sick 1 (K)', 2012, Acrylics & Paper Collage on Panel, 60cm X 60cm