With this series I continue to explore the interactions created between an uneven printing surface and the screen printed image. The manufactured rough surface, and the degraded image it thus creates adds a violence to the work, and it is this violence that I'm seeking to explore further with this series. This violation of the image by the printing process, has been used in tandem with the implied violence of sadomasochistic imagery. Addicted To A Specific Kind Of Sadness is the first work you see on entering the gallery, its hacked into surface, with the same image repeated, each one scarred in a different way, sprawls seven meters across the wall. Through repetition, the work seems to almost oscillate, setting the mood, and challenging the viewer.
From here, this violence/violation is perpetrated across all the imagery within the show, including the two self-portraits. In doing so, the work seeks to tie up representations of the sexualised and objectified other with notions of the self and the identity of the artist.
With other works in the show, the collaging of newspaper articles onto the printing surface has also been introduced into the process. All these articles were cut out and collected from the mid 90's through to the early 2000's, and represent part of an archive created while I was an aspiring author. They represent scientific, political, historical and crime stories from that period, things that may have one day provided source material for a story. In both a literal and figurative sense the archive and these aspiration have been subsumed by my arts practice. Much of the content in these articles is lost – whitewashed – before being further obstructed by the image of a girl in only her bra. These works draw heavily on fashion and advertising imagery, but here there is no product. It is all the style and fantasy without a brand to accompany it. It is advertising with nothing to sell.
As a whole, the show seeks to challenge the viewer in how they see the artist. Brutal and satirical at the same time, these works reflect a world saturated with the imagery of self and sex.