Paul Hammacott: Artist's Statement
"When seeking new insights I look, look, look and play with many pictures; one picture is never enough." - Benoit Mandelbrot
Largely autobiographical, my paintings deal thematically with the larger issues of Life; Love and Money, Conflict and Religion, Sex and Mortality. Utilizing the image of "Everyman,"(1) a stylized glyph of a self-portrait representative of Humanity, my work uses a parred down visual language of glyph-like images and symbols, which are then recombined and reconfigured through an ongoing series of expansive fractal-like compositions, of increasing complexity.
Defying simple reading, I see the labyrinthine nature of the resulting canvas's as figurative or linear equivalents to Rothko's
colour fields, as works that are meant to be absorbed as much as studied, to be experienced as much as analysed. Like Benjamin's quest for enlightenment through "a total derangement of the senses", understanding comes from letting go, from allowing oneself to be
enveloped by the all encompassing flood of imagery, as the images go to work on the subconscious and their inherent meaning emerges.
Referencing the work of Sol LeWitt, my artistic practice centers around the concept of Process, as an image is manifested and then
manipulated through an ever expanding repertoire of formulaic permutations. The result is a pictorial field that is at times jostling and frenetic and at others, strikingly syncopated and rhythmic.
Footnote
(1) See "The Somonyng of Everyman" ( The Summoning of Everyman), usually referred to simply as 'Everyman," the late 15th-century English morality play. "Everyman" is an allegorical accounting of the life of Everyman, who representative of all mankind, is called at his death, to account to God for his actions on earth.
Money (Black on White), 2011.
Acrylic on Canvas, 24 x 54 inches.
Love (Red), 2012.
Acrylic on Canvas, 24 x 72 inches.
Meditating Figures, 2011.
Acrylic on Canvas, 24 x 72 inches.