Shipwreck Print

I am an artist and shipwright currently living in Canada and South East Asia. I was born and raised in Durban, South Africa to fundamental Christian missionary parents and as a result witnessed the racial, religious and political unrest of the 60's and 70's pandemic to that country. My early works investigate the natural South African landscape from an innocent and naive perspective. At the age of 16 I was invited to become the youngest honorary member of the Natal Society of Art in Durban, South Africa. I have since spent the majority of my life in Canada. From a distance I have watched the history of my country being rewritten. As a result my work has taken on a more socially critical, sometimes controversial direction. Art statement: The practice of my art has taken me in many directions over the years including commercial art and design, sign painting, screen printing and printmaking. Currently I am painting almost exclusively with oil paint on prepared canvas. My latest series of work has taken me away from a loose expressionist approach toward a more representational 'realist' approach to the subject matter. I find his approach essential to the elucidation of the intent of my art. I do not pretend to say anything new with my art. It is my opinion that everything is already said. At best my art is an interruption. My works are also suggestive of a narrative. They exist within a network of 'already' narrative, a web of social exchange - language, action, significations, and representations - all of which are read against a background of western culture serving as a mechanism of collectivity. In this context of the agreed upon, the collective realm, there is no originality. My work is a product of this collective cultural voice, the shared cultural meanings and codes. Regardless of the intended meaning of my work, it is in the interpretation the viewer brings to the work, in the act of viewership, that the works are turned inside out. Where the discourse starts to take place. 'Interpretation enunciates the multiple fields of visuality and surfaces of interpretation that are articulated in the work' (Bhabha). We live in, and my work cannot be other than an expression of, already agreed upon historical narratives that have culminated in and include post-modern notions and practices.   In choosing subject matter, it is usually that which is most obvious, most visible in the day-to-day of our culture, that captures my attention.