There is so much (.. play, eat, rest, sleep, I can finally see you now) Painting, Drawing, Assemblage, Installation, FELTspace back gallery, November 2022

The impermanence and ephemerality of our bodies and thoughts has inspired me to play with art forms and examine our own process of infinite traversing. 

​Much of my work has a direct reference to the macabre, grotesque and unworthy because that is exactly what is deemed unlovable.

There is so much (.. play, eat, rest, sleep, I can finally see you now) was a series of playful arrangements in space, made through a series of found objects from my family home, and both older and new artistic experiments from 2022.

The back turned canvas trope has been an attempt to subvert the notion of painting, and view the canvas as a literal art object — both removed from the painting as an art form and from the need to face the viewer (to be on show/to be perceived). I do like to paint and I hope to do it again soon. Sculpture is simply a way in which I have enjoyed playing with ideas.

The sexual water colour works allow me to think about the sexual innuendo of our current contemporary world, laced with both desire, desire for connection and sexual acts as a very real force for what makes up our humanity.

The drawing of the sleeping penis with a night cap on is an attempt to subvert our understanding of the penis, as mainstream culture most often see the penis as something dominant, strong and erect. In this drawing, laced with soft colours and diluted water marks, I wonder what it could mean or look like for a penis to be accepted as tender, sort or even asleep. This may be an attempt to counter toxic masculinity in our culture. I wonder what softness can look like for a man.

The finger that points into the shiny vagina is an attempt to confront and recognise our own human bodies, as our bodies are a core aspect of our selves that pose a complex relationship. We may have disrespected or overlooked the body in its tenderness and soft and squishiness. We being the exploitation of bodies enforced by capitalism.

The rest of the sculptural arrangements in space speak to ephemerality and the potential for creative agency in most all circumstances or objects.

My relationship to objects is rooted in the desire for connection to my (our) world, to permeate between the perceived layers of our so-called seperation, but also to subvert what our culture deem unworthy or disposable.

I build kin to the language of site and objects as a mutual collaborator within my work, as one method in which to challenge what we deem as valuable or un-valuable. In my own life I have seen both people and objects be treated as disposable, based upon the work that they do. My relationship to objects intends to question this unfair relation.

Photography : Brianna Speight