Process and source material
Collage and digital manipulation
Process and source material
Collage and digital manipulation
The grotesquerie of trauma:
The series "The grotesquerie of trauma", 2019-2020, culminated from a body of work created in 2013 wherein I digitally layered images of black ink paintings of female figures onto idealised photographic sources female models. The result being grotesquely distorted figures. The painting process included the utilizing of the aesthetics of the grotesque which is a visual genre of disorder, when applied in my paintings it acts as metaphor for the psychological and physical distress that is caused by emotional and psychological abuse in childhood.
The paintings were created by using a montage of repurposed images from a previous body of work. A montage is a technique of combining in a single composition of pictorial elements from various sources, as parts of different photographs or fragments of printing, either to give the illusion that the elements belonged together originally or to allow each element to retain its separate identity as a means of adding interest or meaning to the composition. A montage is sequenced to condense space, time and information.
These elements act as memory fragments/ subconscious fragments, suggesting the fragmented nature in which trauma becomes lodged in the psyche. The process used to create these paintings is a personal attempt to navigate trauma. These original body of work from 2013 were cut-up, montaged and recontextualized as an act of meaning making and healing. The original repression of trauma and loss are by these means unearthed and remembered through the act of the creative process. Representing trauma by means of grotesque figuration and the collaging and painting process is an attempt, to express and bring attention to, the chaos childhood abuse causes in the body and mind of a child and as a vehicle to process my own childhood trauma.
Grotesquerie of Trauma II
200cm x 150cm
oil on canvas
Grotesquerie of Trauma II
200cm x 150cm
oil on canvas
