As the boat I was on ventured out on to the Tonlé sap Lake, everything dropped away. Colour and objects faded from the environment, and I was immersed in this field of white that seemed to stretch forever. There was this strange sense of omni-depth to it. It was as if what I was seeing had depth and yet no dept at all.
I'm Not Made Of Successful Things uses the minimalist landscape of the Tonlé sap Lake in Cambodia to engage with notions of value, privilege and success. It is also about isolation and mental health. It is an attempt to communicate an experience of the sublime that I had previously only encountered within large-scale abstract expressionist paintings
A horizon, that seemed to vacillate in the distance, brought to mind Rothko's shimmering blocks of colour, and it was his thoughts on the emotional content of pale colours that brought to mind notions of unachieved success. There is also an undercurrent of satire here, with photos taken in an extremely poor country being used to question very privileged western notions of success.