As the proverb goes, “One man’s rubbish is another man’s treasure.” I’ve always loved finding random, discarded materials as potential supports for new works. It brings out the scavenger in me. Whether finding unwanted wooden crates from London’s fruit markets, motherboards from recycle plants or cardboard fruit boxes in supermarkets the initial allure of these discarded objects is their authentic, worn, textured, often branded, surfaces that speak of a story and passage of time. And as with all of my work the surface is of equal important as the painted subject. Whilst working on these found objects injects them with a new life, a new energy, so giving them a new identity, great satisfaction is also found in the knowledge they are not ending up in another landfill.
Up close a real beauty can be seen in the surface of these motherboards. The morning I found them I was scavenging amongst mountains, literally, of rubbish in a recycle plant. Donned with a hard hat, as giant fork-lift and digger trucks worked around me it felt like I’d stumbled across “gold”. When I first saw them I was struck by the complex, intricate pathways on their surfaces enabling me to liken them to the human brain. And whilst the scenes I’ve painted on these motherboards are a continuation of theme; they speak of man’s relationship with nature, order and chaos, the human psyche, I framed them in light boxes so this “brain” could literally be switched on and off. I wanted the viewer to be able to interact with the works and in so doing raise questions regarding the complex relationship man has with machines.
Party Time – 27x29cm
See, Hear & Speak No Evil – 27x29cm
Two Worlds Collide – 27x29cm
MediaAcrylic on Computer Motherboard