Glasgow School of Art
Degree Show 2019
Exhibition Text
Cinema holds a power over the viewer with its presentation of a perfect image. Each frame is rehearsed and planned meticulously; depicting a reality warped from the truth. This presentation, as a result, is intoxicating; selling a version of the world more dramatic, more beautiful, and more comedic than our own. My paintings take the cinematic image and transform it from its initial intent. By employing second hand imagery, sourced from film stills, and embedding them with the first hand, new narratives are formed.
These new narratives are in service of my own experience and personal feelings surrounding the limitations of masculinity, particularly in relation to mental health. The fictional other, stolen from cinema, is used as a vessel for these feelings. Various retooled characters and motifs recur, such as Frankenstein’s monster, Howard Hughes, and references to Paul Newman. These take on new meanings and act as small inside jokes that flow through the body of work.
The work embraces the idea of painting as another lens, and while representational leans towards finding humor and the mundane in the perfected cinematic image. The actor is taken from the cinematic screen and transformed into a new persona embodied by a new intent. The paintings aim to reach honesty with this manipulation, even if through the act of being dishonest.