Artist Statement
Disconnected
My series focuses on personifying the feeling of emptiness, nothing satisfying enough to fill oneself. I have long wanted my art to connect with people who share my experiences; feelings that are generally too big to explain but much easier to visualise in art. At times, I find that when I’m unable to express myself verbally, my brain finds a way to sneak therapy into my art with each brushstroke.
A motif originally painted in 2018, Emptiness, features a headless astronaut, peering outwards at the viewer, set against a dark background. This unnamed, faceless, character has since stuck with me, transforming over the years. It represents moments in which I’ve felt entirely disconnected. For a long time, especially when the astronaut originally appeared, I felt as if I was just a character, a shell of a person, floating in the background of the things happening around me.
I chose to work with acrylic on canvas to showcase my skill and love for a painterly style. I contrast that with a graphic flat style to further suggest the astronaut is an entity that doesn’t belong. It was important to me that the astronaut looked like a sticker, pasted onto the scene. To further imply this, I cut the astronaut’s figure out of plywood. The final scene of this series takes place in the gallery itself creating a more intimate and immersive scene that extends beyond the frame of a canvas.