In the realm of representational painting, how can one communicate specific emotional meaning, one that surpasses the constructs of language?
Searching for emotional meaning relates to portraying what is between or before language: by choosing images that I cannot visually understand, images that evoke confusion and disorientation, I strive for atmosphere over volume and affect over description.
The filmic, as defined by Barthes, lies between language and metalanguage and is found outside the narrative and symbolism of a film. It is epitomised by a clipped fragment that is independent yet inextricable from the whole work, relinquished of time and context: the film still. The nature of the filmic is reminiscent of that which plagues the description of the most extreme human emotions linguistically. One can attempt to describe their feelings in words, yet these attempts often devalue the sincerity of the emotion.
As a result of my attraction to this ineffable third meaning, I select and print film stills. The process of printing, especially with its irregularities and dysfunctions, creates a new subject: a simulacrum. Through the transfer to paper, the original is further removed from its initial context becoming an object subject to the external forces of the material world. The occasional stains, bends, and tears accumulated through time, in lieu of being imperfections, act as subtle signifiers of an additional layer of meaning, simultaneously obscuring the original and re-establishing temporality to the still.
Rather than attempting to represent the source from which the copy derives, my interest lies in working with the image-as-object. By working through multiple printouts, each one just slightly different, a chain of replication is reflected in the process and product. This method of printing a composition of images, much in the same vein of a traditional still life, is a part of my process that functions as a structured routine that serves to relieve me of agency while painting. Another aspect that falls within this order is the task of making the paint from powdered pigments, remaining fairly true to the printed colour palette. Creating this controlled environment allows for the freedom of consciousness to play only when comes time to attend to the application of paint itself.