Curatorial Rationale

My exhibition was created as a result of my research into the physical and biological manifestations of emotions. I found it fascinating that emotions and their effects on people could be felt by people in such different ways. Then, I went further on to take this investigation down a more personal route - Art comes from a personal place within the artist and the viewer themselves, which is why the artist’s mind plays an important role in the way their work is often interpreted. With my pieces I aimed to take the time to actually process this, evaluate my own state of being and try to translate aspects of it into my work. I hope that by doing so I can intrigue the audience enough to do this to themselves, maybe finding some commonality or having completely contrasting views, which would be very interesting to discuss.

In a perfect world, my vision for presenting these pieces would be larger - I’d want to fully immerse my audience in a world that makes them actually feel something close to what I do, but for now, I can only rely on my work, my explanations and the viewer’s imagination. One of the main recurring themes and motifs I looked at in my later pieces was a warmer colour scheme and themes of Fire and Candles, objects that reminded me and many others of their anger, as seen in the questionnaire I conducted. In it I asked questions about where on their body they felt those strong emotions, what it felt like, the texture they’d relate it to etc which gave me further insights into the theme I’d selected and motivated me to choose anger in particular due to the common ground it seemed to lie on across various answers.

I have quite a close relationship with anger, being called ‘irritable’ for all my childhood slowly turned it into a part of me, whether it was true or not, and has led me to the point where now I’ve learnt to reign it in, but use it when necessary. I’ve learnt that anger is necessary, and is one of the deepest emotions people can feel - unfortunately the behaviour it often elicits is messy and ugly, which gives it its infamous reputation and connotations. To show this I experimented with a variety of techniques and sizes to convey my messages. I used Gouache paint - a medium I’d never worked with before - to create works that were more precise, using acrylic paint in ones I wanted to remain a bit messy. I used Digital mediums to create works with a higher level of detail, and use impactful imagery that would be difficult to translate into paint or another physical medium. I also worked with texture - using candle wax in my pieces alongside fake blood to give it an element of realness and make it seem more than just a 2D painting, inviting the viewer to interact with it rather than just stand and watch. I want the audience to take more than just the aesthetics of the work away from my exhibition, I want my theme to spark conversations between people, or some level of self-reflection and introspection in their own minds, about what they feel and how.

My artworks are set up in a stream of consciousness type state, showing the progression of my theme in the same way I’d describe it if I was telling them about it verbally. Jumping from one connected idea to the other is how my brain works and is what’s led me to the ideas behind my works. It is something I hope they understand. I’d like the viewers to maybe even use this as an opportunity to bare more of themselves to the people around them than they have before - that’s what I’m doing here as well, in a sense. This is me, this is my anger - the emotion I feel the deepest and the most - and here is how it’s a normal and almost necessary part of my everyday life. My anger is my weapon as well as my Achilles heel.

What’s yours?