The stillness of the spectacularly burnt out wreckage and the abstract patterns left by the ‘circle work’ told a story of intense energy and emotion that had been and passed.
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Artist Statement
My work over the years has expressed a fascination for built environments and how they reflect back to us our inhabitation of them both physically and psychologically. I am particularly interested in the transformation of these spaces by night, how their meaning may be altered by all the associations night carries with it – mystery, danger, the subconscious and the unknown.
Whilst out taking photographs for new work, I was lucky enough to stumble upon the aftermath of a joyride, which became the loose narrative focus for these paintings. The stillness of the spectacularly burnt out wreckage and the abstract patterns left by the ‘circle work’ told a story of intense energy and emotion that had been and passed. The skate park and adjoining car park becoming a stage for this performance.
It seemed somehow appropriate that this marginal activity would occur in a kind of no mans land in the shadow of a large supermarket. This deliberately destructive, dangerous act expresses a refusal to conform to societies expectations – driven by anger, boredom or some other displaced energy we can’t know for certain. Although I don’t condone such activity I can’t help but be impressed by the sense of intense energy and life force concentrated there in the burnt out wreckage and the skillful mastery and simple beauty of the circles drawn by the car’s tyres. I imagined the people in that car carried away by a momentary sense of ownership and power over the landscape through which they passed, altered and left their mark on.