Interest of conflicts - 2024

Five Walls Gallery

level 1/119 Hopkins St, Footscray, Melbourne

Interest of conflicts, is an exhibition of experimental new paintings.  Presenting as abstract oil paintings I see these works as figurative representations of real objects. These objects are based on dirty and stained rags and pieces of cloth. 
Highlighting the very real artefacts that result from momentary actions. The rag in itself is worthless but also extremely useful. Used and tossed away, the purpose of the rag is to absorb and absolve, removing our mistakes and messes. Once things are cleaned up, we go forward with our lives but these messes still exist, they are just bundled up and taken away. 
This is how I used to treat harmful actions and words from people, best to wipe all traces of their existence, put them away, and move on. This is no longer a feasible option as my mountain of rags is growing too large and is about to swallow me, so I am metaphorically unravelling each rag and examining it. A tedious but important process. 
The thin layers of paint are rubbed, streaked and moved around the surface replicating the surface pressure of cleaning and erasure with a rag. I have painted what I imagine the rags could look like if they were categorised and organised. Archived in a way.