Concept Statement:
The paint sculpture installation of “The Centre of the Grotto” consists of a reductive painting centrepiece attached to the wall and a collection of unique paint marble skins representing the expanded painting suspended from the ceiling.
This work is inspired by the concept of the grotesque, where the complex was considered impure and the simple symbolised purity. The expansive paint skins are intricate and complex with unique patterns. It is highly ornamental, with unregulated and morphing shapes suspended in a chaotic array. The reductive paint skins are uniform, simple, and formed an orderly pattern. It also involved only one hue (blue) in a development of tones and tints.
Both halves of the work are developed from the process of mixing paint. The reductive paint skins involved specific and accurate colour mixing to change the tone between each circle of paint. However, the expansive paint skins were mixed randomly, with circling the paintbrush through the paint and marbling the pattern.
The use of paint skins was inspired by Huseyin Sami’s Paint Skin series where he explored the physicality and potential of dried paint as a material in a performative manner. By exploring the physical nature of dried paint and its forms it allowed me to explore how it can be used as a material. The three-dimensional work of Xia Xiao Wan also prompted me to explore raising the painting into another dimension to create depth and layers between aspects of a painting.













