Artist Statement

Objects left behind

In my work I am exploring how we deal with tragedy and experience loss.  Having lost close family members I am intrigued with how a series of events can cause total 

devastation.  How a collision or moment of impact can off-set a life-long process of mourning and dealing with loss. 

After a disaster people would question and try to understand the events leading up to the disaster and the reasons behind it. They will scrutinize what was left behind.

Objects, completely inanimate, suddenly become precious and personify or represent the diseased. The relationship we have with these objects, discarded, left behind or lost, are shown prominently in my work.

The investigators at the crash site will analyse all the debris. Objects will then be documented and archived. The clean-up crew will try to salvage and restore.  

People not involved, will scavenge and collect curiosities.  Grieving family members will be emotional about broken bits and pieces.  They will try to retrieve, hold on, or put all the shreds and shards away for safekeeping.

The objects themself will be proof of those who have lived.  The marks, dents and scrapes on each object will show how it was used and how its owner interacted with the world

around him.  It will reflect what he did and who he was.

These objects will tarnish, rust, disintegrate and eventually/ hopefully also be lost when the burden of belonging becomes too heavy for the keepers, wanting to 

memorialize them.

The disillusioned will realize that the person does not reside within the inherited objects.  They will turn to memories but memories fade and no two people’s memory of a person

will be the same as each memory has been formed within a certain context, experience or frame of reference.  The reality of a life lived is only a collection of memories that will

change over time.

Within your history/inheritance/ family resides a lot of information of who you are and your existence.

“…any man’s death diminishes me…” 

(*John Donne)

Having lost family members you question your own reality and more importantly your identity.

With the passage of time the things that we find important will fade and will eventually be lost.

To explore these themes I am working with objects as metaphors for loss. The body of work is presented as a series of disasters. 

Although the loss is personal, the disasters are universal, and still relevant when the viewer can place the disaster within a specific context, time or place.

*From the Poem: No Man Is An Island by John Donne