About
Artist Statement:
My work is an exploration of doubt and questioning where I externalise sexual and gender queerness, specifically through a feminist lesbian lens. My practice revolves around contemplating what it means to define the undefined, particularly through the sensuous use of paint. I am interested in how these visual articulations allow me to recreate, reimagine, and redefine space, embracing the ephemerality of this process. To me, painting is an act of artefact-ing, where I am able to operate and preserve fleeting moments of transformation and thought, not unlike film-stills.
I engage with the mythological and the euphemistic, particularly in relation to the notion of ‘mysticism of lesbianism’. I ground my practice in objects, animism and materiality. My approach is informed by an eclectic mix of queer theory, bio-design, occultism, and object-oriented ontology, which serve as frameworks through which I investigate the tension between the known and the unknown. I am drawn to the strange poeticisms that arise when personal and societal traditions are subverted, undermined or left undefined as I flirt with the fear of the unknown.
Playfulness is central to my process, especially in my material exploration. I am fascinated by the dynamics of polarities—between life and non-life, between definition and ambiguity. Through my work, I investigate the complex act of labelling, un-labelling, and declassification, both within the physical and metaphysical realms. This investigation is deeply personal, as I consider my own identity, trauma, and freedom through restrictive and cathartic methods of obsessive painting.
Philosophically, my work navigates ideas of freedom and restriction, especially in relation to how these concepts manifest between queer and non-queer. I investigate the possibilities of justice through the manipulation of visual languages, such as Topology, which allow me to create narratives that question boundaries, identities, and space. This is further explored through the use of deception, as I often suspend disbelief through the creation of hyperrealities within my work.
I frequently incorporate neon as a surface to intensify and illuminate my work, often in contrast with other paint surfaces. I am drawing from the aesthetics of 1970s sci-fi and horror films and video games which are rich in the language of superimposition and identity distortion. These influences allow me to expand the visual and conceptual vocabulary around identity, body, and the queerness of the unseen. Ultimately, my aim is to encourage an absorption and reflection for myself and for the viewer. Through painting, I want my work to parallel a queer experience as I bring a sharpness into the enigmatic and a clarity into the undefined.