Both Mendacium and Simulare speak to the complexities of attachment to place and objects, especially in urban environments, while exposing the deceptive comfort of consumerism. Amid the chaotic, fractured structure of towns and cities, we carve out personal niches to which we can retreat; separated (and connected) by the physical elements of the built environment, but never quite alone. Inside our bright little world within the world, we create a comfort of sorts by surrounding ourselves with ‘belongings’ – tangible objects that might delight or serve us. However, this relationship is a lie, a pretence. For just as we might revere and protect these belongings, we discard them as easily - when their charm no longer consoles us. Reminiscent of dystopian apartment blocks, circuit boards, or cyberpunk industrial landscapes, the complex black shapes wander across the canvas and are punctuated and conjoined by scrawls and blocks of colour to emphasise the duality of separateness within connectedness. The viewer is further confounded by the ambiguous, almost floating composition, alluding to the nebulous and fleeting consolation of material things.
NOTE: This painting is beautifully framed in black oak.