Garble

NEW SCULPTURE! Organovidigram
Exploring the fusion between technology and the human nervous system. A hybrid of various technologies combined with pseudo organic elements. Is this a device of medical support, life enhancement or torture?.
NEW SCULPTURE!
We are extended by our technology. Our nervous system blends into silicon. Here the machine interchanges with biology. Union is realised.

Introduction

For most of my life I suppressed my creative urges. Having successfully pursued a career in a technical industry I felt that I could not longer carry on withholding my latent creative urges and a near fatal road accident late in 2005 was the catalyst for to me becoming a painter and now a sculptor as well.

Themes

My work has two broad themes, expressionist landscapes and visceral sculptures made from found objects such as electronic components. The landscapes are non literal but allow me to express myself using the familiar visual framework of the land and sea. The Organic Flesh Machine sculptures use visceral biological and electronic visual language. The core theme that runs through all the work is that of a complete lack of control over and ultimate surrender to natural processes.

Organic Flesh Machine Sculptures*

The "Organic Flesh Machine" combines pseudo biological items with electronic and electrical 'found objects' embedded into the canvas and boxes.
At times I include surgical elements and "blood" filled tubes and pseudo medical devices. I am interested in the notion of consciousness and mind/body separation. Do we derive our sense of self and identity from the functions of our physical body, the biology of the "organic machine" or does the self exist quite independently of our "hardware"? Is there a ghost in the machine? When the body fails and the machine stops, does consciousness disappear? I am preoccupied with the "flesh machine" and the failure of the human body, the possibilities of machine extension, the impact of medical and the mechanical enhancement of the body for pleasure or pain. I explore these ideas through my sculptures*.
The process of creating the canvas based sculptures is in itself surgical. In order to embed the components and other objects into the canvas I use a scalpel blade. The act of cutting the "flesh" of the canvas induces a strange mixture of feelings; liberation, perversity, guilt and power. In cutting and implanting the objects into the surface I am taking the canvas to another level, giving it a third dimension and a new life. Subsequent work on the canvas involves mending the torn "flesh" of the canvas. In this series wires are veins, puncture points on the canvas become wounds, and entwined wire and flesh create something that is neither purely biological nor mechanical.
In the final sculptures the surgical combination of machine and flesh are realised, challenging the viewer to question whether these are images of surgical enhancement, pleasure, medical necessity or sadistic torture

Expressionist Landscapes Paintings:

My landscapes are influenced by emotions, places, memories. I use poor quality, low-resolution images in my work. In formal photography lack of detail and distortion would be disappointing but for me it stimulates the creative process and helps me add levels of abstraction to the final painted image.
The places I paint are often stormy, rainy and indistinct and people, buildings and other details don't feature. I prefer to leave the shapes of hills, sea, rain and light to speak for themselves. A dull dark rainy moor is as beautiful to me as a glorious sunset or chocolate-box sunny scene. I use hints of light to indicate hope in otherwise grey and moody canvases. As I paint a battle between dark and light often emerges
Although I seek the inspiration of real places they are not accurate reproductions of real locations. I do not sketch or paint in-situ as this does not work for me and when I visit places it is to gain inner inspiration and insight and not to produce a "copy" of the landscape.

Influences

William Turner, Mark Rothko, Paul Klee, Ralph Steadman, Hieronymous Bosch, and Francis Bacon. However I am equally inspired by artists from modern popular culture such David Cronenburg, Phillip K Dick, Clive Barker, Nobuyoshi Araki, Joel-Peter Witkin, Masamune Shirow and Robert Mapplethorpe

Exhibitions

"The Landscape Metaphor: A World Inside"
8th November - 9th January
Group Exhibition with Jeremy Mayes and Peter McCarthy
Three Cups Walk
Ely
Cambridgeshire
CB7 4AN

Liberte d'Expression
2nd November to 8th November 2006 (Invitation only)
Canary Wharf
1 Churchill Place
London
Liberte d'Expression
9th November to 12th November 2006
Candid Arts Trust
Islington
London

Open 18 Competition
11 November 2006 – 6 January 2007
The City Gallery
90 Granby Street
Leicester
LE1 1DJ

The Needhams Christmas Art Exhibition
26th October to 28th December 2006
Needhams Restaurant
186 Main Street
Witchford
Cambridgeshire
CB6 2HT