This new body of work began with a return to my love for drumming. As a drummer from a young age, forever tapping something, I have always been interested in the way simple rhythms and beats can make people move, feel and connect to one another. A universal language and vessel in which to cultivate space for commonality. In the past few years I had lost sight of these core ideas and felt disconnected from my body, nature and community. Many people I spoke to were also feeling these disconnections. After a number of recent experiences witnessing the power of rhythm to connect and create in times of separation or conflict through music and dance, I began to explore these archetypal elements. How rhythm is built into us from birth, our heartbeats the original rhythm, babies dancing to music before they can walk. How rhythm is being used to heal both mind and body. How repetitive, collaborative drumming is a cornerstone of celebration and protest amongst worldwide communities throughout history. 

In an attempt to capture an essence of these ideas, I asked dancers to intuitively respond to drum beats and photographed this process. These images would become the references for the paintings. Throughout the development of the works, I repeatedly listened to the same music, over and over. This repetitive cycle created a specific mood, momentum and energy in the room that I could fall back into with ease, which inherently became a part of the paintings. 

Within the process of creating this work I began seeing a parallel between our bodies and the landscape, in particular coastal rock formations. Built up, condensed and worn down over time by the ocean with its unceasing rhythms, similarly our bodies, both internally and externally, accumulate and are shaped by our experiences. Each work has a rock landform painted as the base, with many thin layers then building up the surface. I wanted the forms to be somewhat ambiguous, somewhere between flesh and earth.

BODIES OF US PLAYLIST


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Presented at China Heights Gallery, 2022
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