David West Gallery show, Lyme regis

I had my first one man show since moving out of London and having my daughter at the David West Gallery, Town Mill Lyme Regis  in June 2011.

  

The darkness defines the shape of the girl

In New World / Old World I have brought together work from California with recent work made in Dorset. Landscape both literal and as a metaphor remains a preoccupation.

The images in the drawings are ambiguous.

Is the girl sheltered  by the trees or overwhelmed and lost in them?

Is she nourished and protected by the earth or suffocated?

The text below by Tim Dedopulos encapsulates much of the symbolism I am referencing in the new work.

"For centuries, forest has marked the edges of mankind’s domain. .... Forests are strongly symbolic of the cycle of life, but frequently trackless and inhabited by potentially dangerous animals, forests are places of danger and trickery.

Where the jungle is an unsubtle, all-out attack, forests are subtler – a familiar presence, outwardly calm and tranquil, but firmly marking the boundary of man’s authority. Where the desert is stark and revelatory, forests seemingly take joy in shading and dappling, defeating the sun, blurring and softening everything into uncertainty. Vegetation is in control here, unregulated; the domain of the earth mother, the feminine principle. The heavens – and Heaven itself – are hidden in forest, out of sight, out of control.

Accordingly, there is a long association between forestry and the unconscious mind, which is often seen as feminine – forests are home to fairy tales, legendary bandits and monsters, witches and wizards, and all manner of magical presences. The trees themselves are reminiscent of temple columns, but what terrifying god or goddess could need such a vast church? 

As a marked boundary, forests symbolise the frontier, thresholds, the unknown. Journeys into them are seen as initiations, tests and challenges; to return is to be reborn, the uncertainty of the unconscious laid to rest. Forests are the fringe of darkness that lurks on the edge of civilisation, a space where we can project our deepest anxieties and fears."

extract from Ghostwoods By Tim Dedopulos