Keeping in mind, more is more, the paintings are overloaded with marks, text, fictional memories, heroines, facts, mathematical formulae and animals that I have loved. Moving through this chaotic space, each symbol, word, scribble mass of colour, manipulates the other, constructing a fabricated anima for the work inviting a feeling of intimacy but remaining distant enough to allude to meaning without obviously stating it, relying entirely on perception.
The work exists within the context of its surroundings as a mask of exteriors and facades. The interplay between construction and deconstruction, the layers and surfaces that we are surrounded by signify the movement of time, experience, dialogue, memory and the communication between these variables. Posters are ripped, revealing older adverts underneath, rain sits on paving stones reflecting the light, the layers of paint on a wall peel away, threads of conversations over the sounds of traffic interact with the sound of the movement of air between buildings. The images, marks, areas of colour and text on the canvas are way of producing and reproducing these components, in a process of emptying or recording of memory as a spontaneous ongoing moment of feeling. (and absence of feeling)
The images, marks and areas of colour on the canvas are also a method of recreating the tension between self as individual and self as part of the mass where everyone fights for recognition but ultimately exists as part of the whole. We seek to form an identity that differs from other but for the most part, exist within the framework of a carefully constructed box of normality. The constant friction between self as individual and self as part of the mass accelerates the narcissism that perpetuates our social networking nation in a deliverance of imagined persona.
More recently, I have been adding perspex boxes to the canvas and sound emphasizing the 3-dimensional structure. These extra layers allow the play of shadow and space within the work. Dependent upon light, text and image only physically touch with shadow, but visually interact at all times as part of the other. The separation invites this interplay of image, text, shadow and, as with the video pieces, sound allowing the different forms to co-exist while competing for recognition. The compositions have distinct physical identities, but due to their positioning are forced to interact with the other. It is in the interaction, connection and separation of these layers that the work exists.
contact ann@annhealey.com