METANOIA
Mixed Media on found objects and working light fixings
100cmx100cm
2018

From the new ‘The Nature Of Reality’ Series using ‘real world’ found objects blurring the line between not only painting, sculpture and installation but also reality and fantasy.

Weather beaten wood from shipping pallets, a relic of the past used as a symbol of degradation of a post-industrial, materialist society.

A window from a caravan that once housed Romanian immigrant raided by a bus load of immigration enforcement officers in North London later destroyed and removed by the council.

The ‘HELP’ sign, salvaged from a hospital set for demolition in central London, while working with Art Angel for Mike Nelson (http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/mike-nelson-4020) to pull everything Mike wanted to use for a future installation, once he pillaged all he wanted we were left to take anything else left behind. The light itself is an emergency light so when switched ‘on’ it actually starts charging and when turned off run off the battery until it slowly dies It wasnt actually until I opened it that I found that it was said HELP on the inside.

The vacuum form brick work a direct reference to the masterful illusion of reality subverted used on theatre and film sets.

A section cardboard with the trite phrase ‘THIS WAY UP’ suggestive of a packing box.

The light switch from the renovation of my original warehouse/studio in Manor House.

Finally the use of the text/graffiti ‘METANOIA’ lit by light.

Metanoia from wiki –

The term derives from the Ancient Greek words μετά (metá) (meaning “beyond” or “after”) and νόος (noeō) (meaning “perception” or “understanding” or “mind”)

In theology – ‘a change in one’s way of life resulting from penitence or spiritual conversion’

In psychology – ‘a process of fundamental change in the human personality, the process of experiencing a psychotic “breakdown” and subsequent, positive psychological re-building or “healing”‘

For me it means, a change of consciousness after a moment of enlightenment, a revelation in consciousness leading to a change in the way one lives.