Artist Statement
My work seeks to examine the dialogue between the processes of deposition and sublimation. The varied use and diversity of meanings of these words provides a useful framework for communicating my posture as a critical observer and creator.
In the geological sense deposition is the layering of sediment as kinetic energy is lost. Deposition relates to the transportation of sediments through the processes of evaporation, wind currents, tides and other weathering. In this way deposition is a record of history, much like a deposition can be the written description of a witness’ experience. In this framework the processes which depose are not water or wind, but memory and thought, and they depose into language. When a ruler is deposed they are brought back down to earth. When the body of Jesus Christ was deposed it was removed from the cross. In each of these frameworks the spirit passes through, leaving matter behind--be it dirt, an account, or a body.
Sublimation can be seen as the counter process of deposition. When matter is sublimated it transforms from a solid into a gas. Sublimation in numerous frameworks, notably religious and chemical, is a process of purification. To depict sublimation is to unmake the deposed history and inject kinetic energy, to conjure and channel the spirit. In this generalized definition of sublimation Jung’s criticism of Freudian sublimation in Dreams is transformed in meaning, “Freud invented the idea of sublimation to save us from the imaginary claws of the unconscious. But what is real, what actually exists, cannot be alchemically sublimated, and if anything is apparently sublimated it never was what a false interpretation took it to be.” To observe the action of sublimation means to be left both critical and confused, shredding a porous deposition through cross examination. To zoom in is to widen Yeats’ gyre, and “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;”
The paintings seek to be both deposition and sublimation. They are records of the artist as natural force, being uncovered. They are accounts from observation, being questioned. They are remaining silent and letting the stones cry out.