The previous two years have been mainly about process for me. Experimenting with different media and seeing what works for me. Going into my third and final year, I’ve begun to select subject matter which I feel strongly emoted by. Images from and inspired by topics and events that I feel impossible to ignore, with the hope that the paintings will provoke similar reaction from the viewer.
It’s difficult for me to imagine someone being passive towards images of war, execution and barbarism. Regardless of which side of the fence people sit, these topics are likely to spark some kind of reaction from them. I suppose that I’m interested in making people consider the moral implications of human beings destroying other human beings, regardless of their reasons for doing so.
The painting is from an image, of a French militiaman, being prepared for his execution. When painting from the image, I tried to focus on the flesh of the two figures. The terror filled face of the condemned man and the workman-like expression on the face of the guard who tying his hands.
Although it’s all to easy to condemn someone who had collaborated with the nazis. Not only would he have been seen to have betrayed his country, but to have aided arguably the most brutal regime in history. But looking at the interaction between these two people, is the hardest part of the image for me. It becomes very difficult for me to see the older man (easily old enough to be his father) tying the young mans hands in preparation for an unnatural end to such a young life. Although I think of the possible severity of the crimes committed by him and the potential weight of his actions, I can’t help but feel a natural repulsion to what’s happening in the image.
Having got the room painted and ready, I realised the importance of selecting the right work to be hung. I’ve already decided that everything that is going into the show, has to have a relevance to the conflict in Syria.
As I’ve begun to lay out the work in various combinations against the walls, it’s become apparent, how important the sequence of the paintings is, with regards to the overall narrative I’m trying to convey.
Placine Obam and Cameron, facing in on victims of the conflict, seems like an appropriate way to emphasise that narrative.
With the emphasis on the motives of mass migration, being put on economics, I thought it relevant to draw attention to the more likely reasons that half the population of Syria have fled their home’s.
It seems more than a coincidence, that since a cival war has broken out and areas of the country has been taken over by brutal fanatics, that people have suddenly decided to leave their homes, families, friends and all they’ve probably ever known.
Ive decided to make several paintings that depict the almost incomprehensible violence that the people of Syria have suddenly been exposed.
I want my work to highlight the impact that war has on the civilian population. I found Heny Moore’s images of people taking refuge in the Tube Stations, particularly poignant.
It illustrates fear that ordinary people must have endured while their lives were under the threat of bombardment, from a foreign aggressor. This This contstant uncertainty of whether a bomb is going to be dropped on you or you family, must make for an unbearable existence. Undoubtedly, this situation must be feelings that are currently being felt by the people of Syria, at the hands of the coalition air strikes.
My degree show is supposed to highlight the impact that the of decisions made by world leaders (particularly of the U.S. and the U.K.) have had on the civilian population, here and in Syria.
My work is mainly monochromatic, but having made drawings of the U.S. President, Barrack Obama and Primeminister David Cameron, I felt that I could use the identical colours of their respective national flags to highlight their partnership in the conflict. The red also presented a useful oppurtunity to symbolise the blood that has been shed as a result of their invovements in the conflict.
I’be been doing some more work on the large drawings on canvas, for the degree show. I decided to take images of anti-immigration protesters and draw them onto a drawing of a weeping Syrian refugee woman, that I’d already started.
im hoping that the image will convey a sense of hopelessness that both parties most likely feel. The anger and outrage of the protesters and the sadness of the the woman, who has had to flee her home.
