2013 - acrylic on canvas - 60 x 180 cm
TWISTED TALES is a unique sculptural painting series that reflects on the complexity of the human spirit and its boundless capacity for renewal. Its foundational principles are similar to those found in the earlier PUZZLING STORIES series which acted as a visual analogy for the full transformational cycle of personal trauma and self-renewal. However, these tales are even more layered, complex and intricate.
The artist begins each work by painting not one, as earlier, but both sides of an unstretched canvas, a visual metaphor for the multifaceted nature of people’s stories. She then ruptures the originally intended linear narrative by cutting up the two-sided painting into strips. It’s a destructive act she invariably finds physically and emotionally demanding yet one that symbolises the impact of trauma. The strips are then painstakingly laid over a new painted stretched canvas, representing the foundation of the next chapter of one’s life, while some are distorted and spiralled out of shape. These protruding fragile twisted strips reveal their raw edges and their painted underside hinting to the large segments of the original painting which will forever remain obscured as one may hide parts of a traumatic past from others, and oneself.
From fortitude, adaptability, resilience and unpredictable factors emerges a transfigured work: sculptural paintings juxtaposing strength and vulnerability, revelation and concealment, chaos and composure. The transformational journey they endured bear the scars of their creation yet makes them infinitely more complex, uniquely enigmatic and possessing a raw energy one feels viscerally when facing them. Yet they reveal their tales only to those who look with care.
2020 - acrylic on canvas - three 190 x 40 cm panels on floor stand frames
2020 - acrylic on canvas - three 190 x 40 cm panels on floor stand frames (the back of each panel is all black; panels can be rotated to alter how the triptych appears)
2013 - acrylic on canvas - two 35 x 35" or 90 x 90 cm panels
2021 - acrylic on canvas - 40” x 40” - 102 x 102 cm
2015 - acrylic on canvas - 60 x 40" - 152 x 102 cm
2014 - acrylic on canvas - two 31" x 24" or 80 x 60 cm panels
2015 - acrylic on canvas - two 60 x 16" - 152 x 40 cm
2015 - acrylic on canvas - 60 x 40" -152 x 102 cm
2014 - acrylic on canvas - two 27” x 35" - 70 x 90 cm panels
2013 - acrylic on canvas - 35 x 35" - 90 x 90 cm