They weave historical and personal elements together. The surface of Birch wood panel becomes part of the piece and I was thinking of the school tables I used to draw on in grade 5, scrawling LED ZEP, STONES and AC/DC in deep HB pencil, until I was caught and had to clean 40+ tables after school.
Here are some thoughts I had about it at the time:
This plain white business shirt, is a memento of a personal
violence against me, at times I re-interpret my memories, re investigate them
as a victim, as a villian and as a participant, but what is truth, that has
long seemed to shift away to emotional response.
I am fascinated by the subjective nature of truth, memory, how
history itself is a collective memory constantly being updated and changed,
restored and changed again by the participants and the interpreters.
This piece, A Thousand Cuts, has many different tensions and
contradictions contained within it. The title itself can mean the ancient
chinese torture, as evident by the destruction of this garment, or it could be
something more mundane and bureaucratic.
The painting itself is static but the lines of the piece have a
nervous care and detail style to them. , indicates a fullness, the lines seem
been painted in intense style, the business shirt lies in tatters, it can
suggest an end to a paternalistic system, echoed by the figure in the
background or it can be more nuianced.
There is a tension in the piece, the business shirt, a symbol of
something highly functioning is broken down. The symbol of something
quintessintially masculine has a femenine shape to it.
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