Prisoner of your thoughts

This afternoon I painted this work as part of a project for a client. I’ll tell you more once the website is ready, but in the mean time, I’m working on a series of paintings inspired by the Robben Island Fence for an exhibition in November. The idea behind it is that for years those imprisoned on Robben Island were kept away from the rest of the world by the fence. But no matter how dire their circumstances, they refused to only see the fence: they saw what lay beyond it, too.

So this is a painting of the view from Robben Island, and over it I have traced the lines of the original fence, once destined for the scrapyard and now being used to create art. Instead of wire, however, I’ve used words. All the words that construct the prison I’ve fashioned from my own thoughts. Useless piece of shit, I am a failure a fake Fong Kong etc.

The scene behind it is deliberately colourful, filled with energy – happy. But the negative thoughts obscure that and get in the way. This is a rather obvious and literal way to express the thought, I know, but it makes sense to me. I would never have attempted this were there not a brief and an opportunity. I will post more of the work for the exhibition to the new site and tell you all about it once all the details are decided.