Transshipped, 2021. R22000

Mixed media on canvas, 1270 x 1000mm (image size). Unframed. 
 
These works are from the Matrix series and deal with the idea of an ‘Other’ space: Simulated, embodied, dynamic and different to the experienced, physical real. It is presented as constructions and connected spaces, and as fictional. As a transportation mechanism the boat as matrix is interwoven with the teleology of human carriage and the self-inscripted and self-inflicted autobiography of a proposed ‘good ending’. A boat occupies a liminal position between places, being neither here nor there, and represents human life between birth and death. In Foucault's Of other spaces (1986) he points to the boat as a "heterotopia par excellence", since " … the boat is a floating piece of space, a place without a place, that exists by itself, that is closed in on itself and at the same time is given over to the infinity of the sea." The boat is allegoric of human life as a vessel on the sea of life, as in Transshipped and Sail, sail away. The latter work deals with the longing for a faraway, different place that is viewed as utopically 'better' than the current place. Transshipped speaks to the readjustment to another matrix or rerouting taking place throughout one's life while pursuing our individual teleological 'good endings' that one is hoping for. Transshipment is when cargo or a container is moved from one vessel to another while in transit to its final destination. There are two vessels in this work: one is floating and the other is caught up in a cocoon of transition. Like the 2017 Great Fire event when I lost my home resulting in adjustments and changes, covid-19 also brought about a sense of the fragility of human life and the innate transience of material goods. Shifts in matrix occurred and new ones were created.
Distinctive emerald green is evident in most of the works, conceptually representing an ideal or utopian green place of betterment, but also a neon-green virtual space. A red palette is used hand-in hand with nuances of green in order to reference human flesh and blood, but also fire as allegory of transformation, process and transition. In the matrix of a virtual world the anchor remains the physical human body and mind: making up visions of other worlds and engaging with virtual worlds.