‘Fate In A Pleasant Mood’

Oil + Acrylic on Watercolour Paper

17 x 12 inches

August 2020

SOLD

Fate in a Pleasant mood -

was inspired by a couple of different references. I’ve been reading the book ‘Wild Swans’ a biographical novel, which follows and narrates the story of the author Jung Chang, her mother and grandmother in their journey through the perilous, tragic history of China’s twentieth century.

I found their story’s incredibly moving and heartbreaking but also inspiring and I really admired the strength these women had to have in order to exist in such a difficult time. Having been to China and traveled to a lot of the places spoken about in this novel it was really interesting to be able to put my experiences of my time there and people I met into context and I found myself really starting to understand the differences in cultures but also realising that their are actually a lot of similarities too. The hardships they had to endure in order to find some type of peace or happiness under a social construct that was built to work against them in order to keep them oppressed and in order to keep them from being able to truly enjoy the beauty of their land and the fruits of their labour brought to light some of the parallels between some of the stories told here to some of those I learnt and heard about growing up through black history. This showed me that no matter where we are and how different our upbringings might’ve been, we as humans are all one in the same we show weaknesses in the same areas; greed, selfishness, narcissism. We all strive for the same things; happiness, health, success, varying on how you individually define those attributes and when pushed, we all have the ability to show immense, strength, love and despite the contradiction selflessness. But, I guess that contradiction is what makes us human, being able to feel and think two contrasting things but for neither things to be any less important or true.

 While reading ‘Wild Swans’ I found myself drawn to all the little moments, that in context of the times they were living in made even the smallest of gestures seem so special and intimate. The moments where for a brief second all the problems, fears and anxieties, that feeling of impending doom of what seemed to be their predetermined fate looming over them seemed to fade away and they are able to exist as just human not someone’s concubine or follower but as a mother, a daughter, a person with real feelings and ambitions. These women, with their strength and persistence to conquer through love and belief while still being able to show vulnerability were part of the inspiration for the figure in my piece.

 I also recently found myself revisiting the works of Richard Mosse and falling in love with his works from the project titled ‘The Enclave’ all over again. One of the things that fascinate me about his work is the juxtaposition he’s created by documenting such a brutal and difficult time while managing to captivate you with the beauty captured through his vision and the vibrant delicate pink hues created by the colour infrared film (inspiration for some of the colours in this piece), offering a new perspective on the conflict he was documenting in Congo. When visiting his exhibit in London it made me think how often and easy it is to overlook/forget how truly beautiful this world is when we constantly find ways to destroy it.

Looking back on my memories traveling through Guilin a region in China, which is heavily focused on in this book. It’s hard to imagine the atrocities that took place in what, when I visited seem to be such an idealistic, peaceful nirvana. Which I’m sure someone would’ve thought not so dissimilarly about of Congo if they had visited pre any type of war or conflict.

With this piece I tried to recreate a small moment of serenity and calm frozen in time. A moment where all the corruption and cruelty that constantly loom over us like a dark cloud throwing shade on all that creates light in the world just fade into the background leaving you to focus on only the beauty strength and fragility of not only the characters illustrated in this piece but also the world in which they exist in.