#mrboxie
Since getting to Sydney I’ve been getting asked a lot about the little box people, when I’m back in Melbourne I’ll write out the adventure that brought them about. But till then here is the Artist’s Statement from my last show which shows the evolution of my projected meanings onto them. As for what you see, it’s completely up to you.
If you have an Artshub membership you can view a journalists write up on them here. http://www.artshub.com.au/news-article/news-article/news/visual-arts/thieves-244806
Contained.
Ever since we were kids cardboard boxes have been a thing to play with, a ‘toy’ that is enabled by endless imagination. The people in cardboard boxes within my paintings
have been used to explore isolation, self-imposed and dichotomised by technology. They have explored the urban pattern, the geometries of the cityscape and the ability to blend in and camouflage oneself into a man-made architectural environment. They have pinioned travellers and their experiences of the landscape second-hand filtered through their cameras and other technological devices. But these boxes are different. These boxes are exploring that kid’s toy used as a place of refuge, isolating and allowing the psychology to take over. The box becomes a mask to hide body language and emotions. Imagination gets taken over by personal narrative. Inside the box is a warm, your own body heat reflects off the inside and back at you. The outside distractions, of sight and noise are muffled by the absorption of the cardboard.
It is a meditative outfit, a quieter place in a quiet home. A safer place in a safe home – yet there is this little glow that sometimes escapes from the box, bringing the outside world in, waiting for that ping.
The box is anti-heroic, anti-masculine. It speaks to an interior life well explored. One thing that becomes apparent over time viewing the paintings is that they are self-portraits.
#createyourfuture