Black Mountain White Mountain

The images may be purchased as either or unframed  framed art works and form part of the Black Mountain White Mountain works from 2011-12. Black Mountain White Mountain looks at our separation from the landscape due to technology. What distinguishes these landscape paintings is the lack of authentic experience that I have had in the Black Mountain area near my home, whilst developing the paintings. The paintings are the result of visual research in a range of media, observational drawing, digital imaging and of course painting. The idea that when we are in the landscape we bring to it all of our recent urban experiences and this experience affects how we look at the landscape. Formally I have approached this by introducing graphic devices such as cross- hatching and gridded grounds. To some extent the arguments contained in the paintings have been influenced by the relationship between data, systems, ecology and our understanding of what nature is. This understanding was initially developed from Freuds notion of the electrical function of the brain. Freuds initial observations were developed, into the notion of balance (systems) in nature, by early ecologists. These ideas are further explored in the documentary “All watched over by the machines of our loving grace” by Adam Curtis. The documentary goes on to illustrate our dependence on social change in society to form our understanding of landscape.

sex and death

Mona is the Tasmanian equivalent of the Museum of Modern Art. It's like a Krypt, dug out from an island in the Derwent River, a hole that contains a collection of Post - Modern artwork from the collection of  David Walsh.
One of the fascinating aspects of Mona has been the prospect of recording ones path through the museum and in fact the use of ipods to review the purpose, meaning, opinion and position of the art work. The path that I took is represented in the following link   http://mona.net.au/theo/ .
As a tour through a contemporary art gallery I felt that Mona provided an enigmatic space in which to view the artwork. The architecture of the basement provided a unique space for the artwork as you are very much aware of the fact that you are underground during the experience. Most of the work was displayed individually providing a great deal of contrast as one walk from one artwork to the next. Mona included a number of projections and the first artwork Encyclopedia by Charles Sandison was projected directly onto the sandstone wall with fascinating mini animations formulating and reformulating new word patterns.

Light, Movement and the Body

Mo Costandi makes the point in his recent article "Leaning to the Left makes the Eiffel Tower seem smaller", that the mind and body although we may have thought of them as separate entities are in fact intimitately linked as one. The mind controlls the body, so that our emotions and thoughts are "grounded in our bodily sensations and movements" . This studio based self portrait can be considered with these contemporary notions of the body moving through a pattern of light in space. So that in the context of Neurological Expressionism, light movement and space may in fact be able to produce new emotions and thoughts.

Mr Costandi [http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/neurophilosophy], goes on to remind us that movement can effect memory and that temperature can effect relationships and that our sense of touch can effect relationships. I was reminded of this recently when comparing shopping experiences. In the small town that I visited the people in the supermarket where much more likely to bump into each other. Physically touching and apologizing and beginning communication. Very different from the cold climate capital city where I live, in which a touch of trolleys is unusual.