| General Statement As a species we have always been unsatisfied with an unanswered question. Our tenacity has taken us on journeys to the moon and given us power at the switch of a button. Our thirst for truth has also lead to dogma, bigotry and delusion in a demand for answers where none are apparent. My role, as I see it as an artist, is to create work that has a level of beauty, through a pursuit for some kind of truth; a truth that should be honest but not exclusive. There is no ultimate statement. The works are questions, suggestions, perceptions. I hope that the viewer is encouraged to use their own reasoning, to make logical sense of things. As I see it, my response is only a small part of a perpetual conversation, in an ongoing quest of distillation. My work is generally concerned with the human predicament, using the notion of a collective unconscious; a rhythm seen throughout human cultures via religion and mythology, referring to the psychologist assertion that myths, fairytales, folk-lore and religion all originate in a place deep within the unconscious, allowing human beings to make sense of the world where, at the time of conception, there is no clear logic or empirical evidence. I often use archetypes and established signifiers as a starting point, allowing the work to develop on its own terms. Though I may also begin a painting or a drawing as a series of marks, with no definite planned outcome. The purpose is to create a composition that “feels” right, together with the restraint and acknowledgement that “feelings” can often be misguided. In this suggested contradiction, between intellectual truth, delusion and intuition lies a tension that I find compelling as an artist; constantly searching for freedom to express, while also questioning the validity of each mark and each artistic statement. Suggested related introductory reading list:
Carl Gustav Jung: Man and His Symbols, 1964, Aldus Books. Joseph Campbell: The Hero with a Thousand Faces, 1949, Princeton University Press. Sioned Davies: The Mabinogion, 2007, Oxford World's Classics. | | Dim Gobaith Caneri (With reference to work developed from 2009 to 2011)
At an Open Mic Poetry Night in Merthyr during 2009, author and poet Mike Jenkins and I decided to work on a collaborative project. We have both lived in Merthyr Tydfil for over 30 years, have a similar political ideology and are also continuing to improve our Welsh language skills (both of us coming from English language backgrounds, but having sent our children to Welsh medium schools and strived to learn the language as adults). Our general motivation already seemed quite similar but we decided that the work would also need a specific focus. We chose something that we’d both grown up alongside, being both very familiar with its sounds and heritage but also continually new and vibrant in words and imagery. Our focus was on Welsh idioms and phrases as a binding link between our work. In the wake of the 2009 Banking Crisis in particular, my work began to concentrate more on expressing a social consciousness and the notion that the vast majority of us are little more than cogs in a machine, making profit for the few. Hardly a new concept but one worth reiterating in times where the word “democracy” is wielded like some sort of unquestionable Holy Grail, able to sweep concepts like “chwarae teg/fair play” and “consensus” under the carpet. I’m not a politician and I'm not opposed to democracy: A blend of democracy, meritocracy and consensus does seem to be the best practical political system that I can think of. But it doesn't seem to be working as it should. All too often it seems that we become blinded by dogmatic sound-bites and sloganeering to the point where we stop becoming objective and fail to apply reason. This is something that I think goes to the core of what it is to be human to some extent. We begin to make sense of the world by simplifying things but eventually holes appear and we start applying sticking plasters, until the whole thing falls apart and a new theory or way of doing things is born. Is our culture, our civilization at that breaking point? Or are we just a few sticking plasters in? As an artist I don’t pretend to have all the answers. But I do wonder about the decisions that are continually made in high places allowing exploitation and the over harvesting of the planet's resources irrespective of the consequences, be that global warming or the health and well being of local people. If we think of the recent open-cast mine Ffos-y-Frân, then even today the profit from coal appears to be more desirable than the health and well-being of local people in south Wales. I’m also interested in the delusionary element in our collective unconsciousness that allows us to become manipulated, including procrastination, idol/hero worship (from religion to the shopping mall), notions of the “self” (and how that relates to others) and cultural norms that dictate how we're expected behave. | |