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The
Blister Exists
Excerpts from
portfolio commentary, 2007
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The
recurring elements in this project are the
open mouth exposing teeth, the city skyline,
inversion and the diffuse vertical obfuscation
of the overall composition. I was attracted
to the ambiguous treatment of the open mouth
in art. A painting that captures a subject
with gaping jaws may imply screaming, feeding,
sexual congress, yawning or speech but these
implications are potentially dwarfed by the
viewer's innate reaction to bared teeth.
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This
project was directed almost entirely by sketchbook
developments and external research. The prevalent
distortion of facial features and mouth in
particular are clearly visible in expanded
drawings and photographic material within
the book. Some of these discoveries have been
exploited in photograms, prints and drawings
as well as oil sketches.
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The
Blister Exists - mask studies |
I
was interested in the idea of the art as protagonist
- that is, an emanation that confronts the observer
rather than being passively experienced. In this
regard, the Messerschmidt "character heads"
have been an invaluable reference. Not least, seeing
the rendering of an artist's human head with lead
or plaster encouraged me to casting my own head.
Specifically, it was important the visage was captured
with the mouth open. This led to some obvious practical
difficulties but the molding process produced unexpected
but welcome distortions to the mouth that were also
incorporated into select pieces of work.
 Life
mask - plaster of paris |
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The
final plaster cast proved invaluable as a
primary source for pencil drawings and a series
of oil studies. Other experiments in exploring
the prone nature of an immobile face included
turning my head over the moving bar of a scanner.
The resulting images were varied. Many were
used in tandem with cityscape silhouettes
and superimposed with images of skies.
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Countering
the overt provocation of material featuring an open
mouth, deliberate inversion of the exposed torso
and head marry thematically with the obscuring of
the overall image with horizontal geometric forms
in the larger painting The Blister Exists. Colour
mass and distinct geometry in the city skyline obscure
the trapped and restrained body, inverted and hung.
The ambiguity of the open mouth clashes uneasily
with the structural certainty of the cityscape,
further cemented with the inclusion of found objects
projecting from the surface of the painting in relief.
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This
personal project is confessional of an uncomfortable
personal state, thus resulting in this display
of confinement and frustration - immobility,
threat and fear of failure. Rather than identifying
psychological components and working to represent
them, I have allowed the sketchbook to collect
a series of emanations.
These
have hence coalesced into recurrent themes
and a “shorthand” has developed
in the form of corresponding images. While
the city evades and confines, the mouth cries
out and the teeth prepare to bite.
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