Mare Nobis
MIXED MEDIA ON SANDWICHED ACRYLIC
24- 42 INCH DIAMETER
2023
The artist’s body of mixed media works developed from the primordial form of the circle, evolved through the use of various mediums, into complex microcosms. Vortexes and craters, corals and forests, cells and cosmos, delicate and harsh, receding and engaging all at the same time, on the same plane. ‘Where distinction never gazed’- be it micro or macro.
These contemporary artworks further took on a global perspective commenting on climate emergency and eco anxiety. Release of greenhouse gases, bleached coral reefs, melting ice caps may seem like a distant problem with little or no effect on us. However the health, economic, political and environmental implications of the changes in biosphere has a psychological impact on our collective. Whether the effects are direct from natural disasters, or more gradual from changing temperatures and rising sea levels that cause forced migration, starvation, loss of livelihood; we are all impacted by the butterfly effect. Compounded stress from a changing environment, eco-migration and eco-anxiety affects community mental well-being through loss of social identity and cohesion, hostility, hopelessness and depression. This slow growing cancer that highjacks our natural resources, bringing about changes in weather patterns is staring right at us.
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The artworks are a representation of our collective consciousness and where we are headed. What appears like beautifully arranged patterned ecology is a denial of the sinister mutation sucking the goodness from our collective only to be replaced with despair, anxiety and loss. Burnt ecology and skeletal corals that were once a riot of colour, now bleached in time, stands as a pre-curser of what’s yet to come. Meticulously drawn needle like gyres envelop expanse of pure fluid spaces (synonymous to the planet), like a cancer that multiplies and steals all that’s good, leaving behind a carcass, of a memory of what once was.
As the art practice further developed, attention is brought to cellular structures of certain endangered plants and coral species. The choice of materials and their arrangement lend an artistic interpretation to the cell structures of these life forms. This encouraged the practice to further study cellular anatomy of plants closely, to shine light on certain species that are not only stunningly beautiful but much required in keeping the balance of our biodiversity.
The Earth will continue to evolve and cope, will we?
True to their medium, these mixed media artworks have witnessed through into creation, the incorporation of fabric, paper, acrylic sheets, ribbons, tissue, thread, sponge, felt, gauze, wire, aerosol and acrylic paints, pen & ink, digital prints, foil leaf, brunt paper, lace, glass, leaves, seeds, pressed flowers, drift wood and other found objects. Each piece a unique collage- a microcosm.
