2021 STUDIO WORK -TURF - reconsidering grasslands - Paris re-occuring

Turf has been the most used medium in landscaping since the 16th Century. From the Zoysia sodding fields of Japan to the privately owned Chamomile fields of France to the modern parklands and sport grounds used as civic community space.

The Turf Series stems from the questioning of human obsession to control and own the natural world. I see the lawn as signifying colonial acquisition, of privilege and a problematic heritage that still holds root. It is a reminder of western pastural foundations, aristocratical dominion and in modern times an unobtainable dream for the next generation.

After returning from my residency in Paris in January 2020 I became obsessed with grass as a concept. I had for years had a personal mowing addiction in my little back garden spending countless hours sowing and tending to its thirsty needs. During lockdown I started planting grass in buckets confining and controlling its growth. My son cared for these tufts during his covid confinement and I hoped it created a sense of nature in his cement cage.

In the 16th century the cultivation of landscape through the use of lawn was fashionable by wealthy land owners in France and England manufactured stretches or land to resembled glades. A lawn was a mark of stature and wealth, not used for food or dwellings this lands pure purpose was for frivolous adornment.

Colonialism saw grasses which were more favourable for their imported stock exported and taken around the world without care or thought of the destruction of endemic grasslands.

The 19th century term park was used to describe acres of lawn which eventually becoming public areas, grass migrated from these public spaces back to private yards where households could create their own connection to nature and showcase their own stature of ownership. Think the 50’s “perfect” nuclear family image with the lawn out the front and the victor mowers adds synonyms on weekend home ownership duties.

The unachievable plastic ideal of the cultivated 1950’s front lawn could now represent the unobtainable and unrealistic expectations of and on our current generation… not only the dated “ideal” family unit but in home ownership in general especially in the current climate…,….

The analogue tv signal was turned off on April 9, 2013. It somehow seemed like a monumental end. The black and white patterns always seemed like a scene from space, a secret communication lost in translation. The flickering screen reverberated left over radiation from the big bang 13.7 billion years before, the beginning of time denoted in the unrecognisable shimmering noise.

My work has always had the prevalent thread of the everyday, what we see around what we absorb, what we crave, what we dream. Moving away from figurative source material has given me the freedom to explore and re-visit painting. By pushing the black and white imagery and expanding the NTSC colour palette, I have forced the static signal to becomes part of my world. In a way the source has become indistinct to the adaptation; as with the source material itself gone when the overwhelming intensity of frequencies create the crisp television image. Returning toacrylic sheeting after years not only links the works back to the idea of the screen but brings back the carving and physical approach to painting that provides me a pure engagement with the medium.