"Charna Brown" Painting

My practice has always had an underpinning of the migratory state of humans- being an immigrant all my life. I was born in Saudi Arabia to Filipino parents and raised in the suburban life of Pontefract, West Yorkshire. I moved to Newcastle for my Fine Art Degree, then Portugal to explore a different career path and now Plymouth. With migration in mind, my work has always been focused on identity, more specifically my own identity; trying to know who I am and where I belong racially, culturally and socially. It has always been difficult to define who I am, “You were born in Saudi, you must be an Arabian”, “You’re Asian, so you must be good at maths”. My physical appearance has a lot to do with people’s definition and stereotype of me. I do not fit into the typical stereotype of a Filipino/Asian man, which is to be 5’8, round face, non-heroic, fragile, a Lawyer or a Doctor.

The reason I listed the stereotype of an ‘Asian’ man is because I do not fit in any of those. What I want to show through my work, is the experience of being a true Filipino/Asian man in the current Western society; to show the kind of cultural exposure I have had from an Eastern and Western point of view. My work is the physical accumulation of space, time and experience. The most recent showing of my work was at Devonport Guildhall, a solo exhibition installed and curated by myself. The idea behind this set of work was to encapsulate my own migratory state during my time in Plymouth, and to create a reflection of my identity, both through the application of paint and inclusion of mirrors or photo frames, as opposed to canvasses.

The paintings I create are extensions of myself, each one reflecting parts of who I am. I developed a way of painting to consider the system/serial, by which the same repetitive process is undertaken. I try to determine the outcome of an action by being as rigorous and meticulous as possible, however, something interesting is born through the instability of that strict process. My curiosity lies within the inconsistencies of the medium once applied; this tension between the precision of application and the chaotic quality of the paint almost echoes the human spirit- the universal struggle of an indeterminate reality. The physicality of paint on the surface pushes the boundary of what is considered a 'painting', bordering more into the realms of sculpture and relief work, to occupy a physical pictorial space.