Artist's Statement
"One Zero One" is the title of a large scale composite piece which is comprised of a series of smaller works.
The small works have an iconic feel yet incorporate everyday / banal images from my environment, life history and society. They are also, to an extent, an investigation into the nature of nationality and identity as well as a reference to childhood memories which are often visual rather than verbal.
Some of the works are historical, and reflect images from junior school textbooks; others make reference to nursery rhymes or resemble pop-art depictions of common South African products. Many of the works include found objects: from small plastic toys to old badges and emblems that reflect fragments of our past.
My subject matter is chosen almost at random, like a flow of thought in which no single image is more or less significant than any other. Through this, the works acquire the shifting qualities of small flashes of memory and dream.
Technically, I am exploring the concept of a composite piece comprised of many smaller works that relate to and comment on each other both thematically and in the nature of their medium. I have used various mediums including traditional oil painting, pewter work, wood carving, silicon moulding and enamel work. The multiplicity of images sets up a dialogue between individual works that lends the piece a wider scope of commentary by allowing the whole to become self-referential.
Through out the process, I have been investigating the nature of the systems and patterns that emerge within the developing composite piece.
The title of the exhibition, “One Zero One”, refers primarily to the number of small works that make up the composite piece, but also draws on the nature of binary systems. Each work, like the zeroes and ones that make up binary code, has an alternating level of significance that is dependent on its position relative to the other works. And it is only when the individual digits of binary are grouped together that fluctuating patterns begin to emerge and acquire meaning.
