JANE
SAYS . . . - PROJECT STATEMENT
The 'Jane Says' series of works is a collaboration between myself and the writer Janie Doll. The aim of these works is to create contemporary folklore or a series of Urban Myths based around real life events that have happened to Doll or to her friends. My paintings are my own interpretation of Doll's re-telling of these events and she will then create a series of fairytales or myths based upon my subsequent paintings. I have transformed Doll's narratives into vivid wonderlands that owe a debt to both the Victorian fairytale and Pre-Raphaelite art. By carefully composing each painting to mimic a selected Pre-Raphaelite work, I have incorporated the myth that surrounds the painting into the language of my work, linking it to Doll's story. Janie will produce a piece of text that adds a sense of distance from these sometimes harrowing Rites of passage tales and instead presents them almost in the realm of fantasy. These stories will be exhibited alongside the painting making for a truer collaboration. The work of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood has always been a major influence in my development as an artist, and it will be the influence from these works that will dominate the look and feel of this series. These works insisted upon the importance of a serious subject, a highly elaborated symbolism and freshly thought-out iconography. Throughout these paintings I have incorporated these themes into my paintings, predominantly through the use of flower symbolism to suggest the narrative at the heart of my paintings. In the execution of each piece, Doll is asked to re-live these events, and as she expresses real anguish, this tension between the desire to produce beautifully composed paintings, and the need to convey the true emotions is felt throughout the work.
It is my intention to recreate a sense of intensity at each location, heightening its significance to Janie Doll. The vivid colours of my fluorescent and vibrant palette enforce this, countering the darker undertones of Janie's writing. The photogenic aspect of my technique allows me to play with the viewer's notions of reality, drawing them into certain details embellished from the narrative. In essence the work will form contemporary moral tales that present a frank view of adolescence. Though the emphasis of these tales is on the tragic, they will inevitably give an informed account of what it is to be a young woman during such a turbulent period of her life and replay some of the issues that have greatly affected her.
A recurring theme throughout the work has been my willingness to expand the works outside the constraints of their canvases. To exhibit the 'Jane Says' paintings, I have created a faux 'Victorian' set, complete with furnishings that draw inspiration from period works. The paintings will be mounted in heavy black frames and Doll's text will exhibited alongside in Perspex cases, these will be accentuated by 'Period' furniture and wall coverings which I have designed and had produced that will be displayed in the specifically constructed gallery. In presenting my paintings in this Museum setting, I am suggesting that these works are of historical significance, elevating the status of the paintings and text, and subsequently transporting these works to an era when myth, symbolism and truth to nature were prevalent in art.
