Miss Havisham I, oil on canvas © Pip Dickens
Private Collection
This series of paintings and drawings initially
developed from a response to books and films
that utilise fabric, or apparel, as a key
motif within the storyline. Apparel has been
a device in folk tales and fiction down the
centuries - characters use clothes to conceal,
or create, alternative identities.
This theme expanded into the dark realm of
Film Noir and the dramatic Technicolor technology
surrounding epic widescreen vistas - techniques
that heighten drama and atmosphere. The 'letterbox'
format is combined with disturbing, almost
forensic, aspects of the 'close up' or film
still.
Memory perception also plays a significant
role in the work. The paintings allude to
personal constructions of how we remember
things - the 'eidetic' aspect of memory –
what mythographer, Marina Warner, describes
as "referring to optical experiences
that are retained in the mind’s eye with
hallucinatory intensity."
There is a parallel with fabric
and threads
in the construction of stories
themselves
- plots are unravelled, lines
of enquiry
are followed to solve mysteries,
the word
'clue' derives from 'clew' meaning
a ball
of twine or thread...people fabricate
stories,
hide behind veils of lies, they
spin tales.
A story is a yarn...
to see paintings from this series click here
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