As our experiences take meaning, before even the simplest emotions arise, we are creating mythologies. This is to propose that mythology, or non-perception of reality, is a native disposition to most of us, and as our discreet perceptual experiences are turned into cognition this semantic process has already begun. Through my research and work i am trying to understand these processes and in particular – how we, as a society, create concrete mythologies of the idea of “nature” and we can shift or analyze these.
The spaces and sounds in my recent works derive mostly from these explorations, a spatial/linguistic reservoir of experience, myth, memory and fantasy, and they so they may appear to be possible or even experienced spaces in the same way our myths appear as realities.
With images I work largely in monochrome which, where necessary, pushes the images further from realities, towards these fictions – focusing on connecting spaces and ideas through metaphor and the sensuality (experience) of tone and form. Working with deliberately constructed fictive spaces allows this shift between reality and imaginary and is analogous to the semantic shift from experience to primary meaning.
I draw (in the broadest sense) spaces to enable myself to look harder, to begin to see. I draw to see my relationship to others and my environment – our shared spaces, our spatial relationships and our shared languages and meanings. These investigations begin at the simplest level deconstructing and reproducing these spatial relationships, or orders, of simple elements and the meanings they give.
More specifically I am investigating the socially defined concepts and values of “nature” and “natural”; the semantic value of the opposition of “culture” and “nature” is constantly shifting evolving with contemporary politics and mass education, but our (Occidental) understanding and the significance we lay on this idea of a singular “nature” still largely derives from the Romantic era.
I live a life full of activities that have evolved through a hedonistic relationship with space – activities like mountaineering, cross country skiing, mountain biking, hiking and yachting – activities that have mostly evolved and become meaningful and pleasurable since the industrial revolution and the romantic era.
Both my activities and often the form and manner of my drawings appear romantic. This ideology is still very much at the heart of many modern leisure activities and this leads me to question in whose interest does it continue to function? It certainly appears to function for my benefit but on sustained investigation it is arguable that these ideological structures underpin the form of modern capitalism. The social and spiritual freedom sought and first expressed in romanticism now feeds hedonistic desires and insatiable wanting – the dynamic of modern consumerism.
I live and work in Geneva, Switzerland. The previous seven years I lived in Edinburgh, Scotland. I spend considerable time walking, cycling and climbing in mountains areas.