"The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heav'n of hell, a hell of heav'n." -John Milton, Paradice Lost.
My contextual practise as an artist has always been centred around notions of morality and the duality of human nature. Not so much from a social point of view, but from an intraverted introspective. I have utilized fine art, digital photography and contempory street art inspired graphic design to create images that portray either characters or a psychodramatic mood to illustrate my observations about myself, my own psyke and the psychology of others.
My research paths throughout my degree have compelled me to analyze literature such as The Divine Comedy, in particular 'Inferno', Hieronymous Bosch and his 'Garden of Earthly Delights'... I have also become increasingly aware of Carl Jungs influence and become fascinated with the so called 'Collective Unconscious'. Over the years I have collected research and gained a brief insight on both Christianity and Spirituality, as well as Occult material such as Laveyian Satanism and Crowley. It has been this process of interpeting both sides of the coin that has forced me to break away from conventional views of moralistic duality. Big God Small, is both a sketchbook audio project and an exploration of these themes and ideologies.
I am not a musician and I have practically no knowledge of music theory. Instead I use MIDI soft-synths, samples, drum machines and various effects to compose a mood. I approach music production in a similar way to a mixed media fine art peice and attempt to digitally 'paint' sound. My current work concerns itself with archetypes. They appear to be angels and demons, but as the conditioned line between good and bad begins to blur - the archetypes themselves begin to cross-pollinate with each other. These distorted visions are the vehicles that I use to explore my own psyke, and the darker side of human nature. Angels are personified as drug addicted hookers wearing latex and gas masks... demons are conjured from the subconcious as innocent child archetypes. Nothing is as it seems, and I enjoy the conflict that these opposites create, forcing myself to question my own objectives and opinions.
The most interesting thing I find about my work, is that the more violent and perverted my work becomes, the more docile, placid and well balanced I become as an individual. Through my work I am able to indulge in my own fantasy world of sin, which allows me to think laterally about my own life. The world I am depicting through my work, exists only in my mind. My conscious is very rarely governed by subconscious desires to act out these fantasies. My personal ideas of sin come not from experience, but from literature, media and entertainment. They are the psychological manifestations of the glorified world reflected in me, which is why my work surfaces as an expression of these ideas in archetypal forms. If I wanted my work to become a reflection of the truth of these things, I would allow myself to experience these extreme situations but I personally find my work more interesting when my subconcious fills in the gaps.
I chose the name 'Big God Small' because what is god if not a symbol of universal right and wrong. 'Big' and 'Small' serve as two opposites in conflict, but also, 'Big God Small' as a whole refers to the well known saying that '...in life, there are nothing bigger than the little things'. The consequences of events and actions, which is perhaps the over-riding motivation for my desire to understand the mechanics of human nature or the lesser angels and better demons of our nature.
IVENA is an independant record label/art house/creative project that myself and DeprivedAnxiety co-founded in the summer of 2006. We decided that we would reach more people with our bedroom produced beats and peices by pushing everything under one roof. As we have been working towards the same goal, we have found a world of creative projects to develop. We have included to put in Slack Happenings and Paperhouse, and there is still alot of talk about 237 - The Original project between myself and DA that in essence became less about a music collaboration and more about the collective conscience 'Ivena'. It is still early days. We are releasing music on CD free of charge, (as far as I know... ) and recently there is talk of including our artist persona's into the mix... Something about.. 'Audio Comic Books'. Last year was more about sculpting the idea and establishing the family. With a bunch of new material from all the artists on Ivena and website looming in the not so different future, you can be sure that this year we'll get the ball rolling much faster.
Thankyou for your support on all of our projects. Much love.
'Ideology of Hate' 4 track EP is available for free through Ivena. Get in touch and we'll send you a copy.
