Artist Statement

 

HER.

 

I see her sitting across from me. She is spitting and hissing, controlling and

vicious. I feel her perching upon my back. Sharp knees and stinging

fingernails. She is poised behind me, prodding and pulling and measuring and

judging. 

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We met when I was a child. She told me she was here to help

me. She wanted to make me happy. Brand new.

 

In ten years, she has never been my friend. 

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My aim is to make her physical. A

creature, an alien, a monster.

To give her a face that isn’t my own.

A body that she cannot control.

 

I paint the way that I see her.

The way that she impacts my relationships. The

way that she speaks to me. 

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Smearing foodstuffs, cosmetics and paint onto scrap

wood, I have created over 50 different portrayals of Her. 

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I want an audience to smell her, see her move, see her scream, see her

change. 

Installation allows her to melt out of the wall, rise from the floor, crawl upwards towards

the ceiling. 

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Eyes unblinking. 

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She becomes an unpleasant, moulding caricature,

An exaggerated personification of an uneasy

feeling, Guilt and shame. A desire for perfection. 

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Anorexia is an uncomfortable, guttural word. It is a difficult

conversation, Misunderstood and secretive. Affecting anyone

of any race, gender and age. My aim is to contribute to a

wider understanding of the disorder, And to encourage an

audience, To separate the monster from the self. Whatever

the monster may be.