Opening Feb 8, 2008

Artist Talk Feb 9, 2008

Statement

The work is concerned with the consequences of personal relationships on the cultural and psychological characteristics of a society. Western ideals of citizenship and the nuclear family are a central theme. Commonality within a given community is questioned, that is, agreement and agreeableness are not assumed to exist. This is an attempt to manifest a contradiction between the superficiality of appearances and the complexity of the emotions that underlie any affiliation. A viewer’s relationship to a work of art is seen as paralleling relationships depicted in these images, in so far as it may be circumspect. The meaning of superficiality and the necessity of a separation between the personal and public realms are considered through the concatenation of differing modes of body language. These themes are in part underpinned by the idea that what is properly Public has evaporated. (The inability to hide in an increasingly monitored society and the non-differentiation of behavior formerly considered either formal or informal is witness to a loss of the public realm rather than a loss of privacy, privacy having expanded beyond the point of recognition.)