Recurrence Painting

“Chesterman’s sardonic play on theatre and its countless reproductions, to the point that it seems trite, is a parody of life as a tireless and merciless game. But when life might seem nearly bleak, Chesterman takes away the seriousness in candid, affable humour. Where the individual (Aladdin) is stripped of his liberty, autonomy re-navigates its place in other works – as do we in advocating society’s move towards struggles so often shroud inner turmoil. Recurrence plays on the idea of a theatrical reproduction, sporting multiple Aladdins in the face of life and death. Chesterman brings a contemporary rendition to the well-known fable, introducing various elements from modern day entertainment and landscapes that are familiar to us… notwithstanding that video games, sports, technology and the ever- banal weather. Juxtaposing fantasy and reality, recurrence is a caricature of the pitiless game of life - one is thrust mercilessly upon an endless arduous train like a flying carpet winding down a treadmill. Exigent, but without finality. As a diptych it’s extending this work, as with other recent paintings, to explore another dimension of materiality where Chesterman incorporates a textural quality to the works with objects that can be found in our everyday. The Persian rug that Aladdin battles on almost transports him to our world and us to his. Various parts of the paintings composition are also recycled from his previous works, where the Red Wings of the birds surrounding a massacred Aladdin where reconstructed from a television screen from a past work. This extends on the idea of repetition and its very form, Chesterman translates the idea that life is hardly as facile as it seems.” Keoy Wan Hui on Recurrence.