Untitled, 2022

Spray paint, Posca pen, ink, Lino cut, cardboard, paper

This was one of my resolved works for my BA (Hons) Painting, Drawing and Printmaking modules.

For this piece I wanted to combine some of the different elements, ideas, and themes I’d been exploring previously. It was important to me that the work “said something” in a socio-political commentary / agit-prop context.  Whilst working with the image of the balancing skateboarder, his stance reminded me of a crucified figure.  Following this thought, I sketched a cross behind to see how this worked, and the idea for my resolved work started to come together.

When previously working on the donuts I spent a large amount of time only working on this aspect, over and over, trying different techniques, mediums and colours.  I wanted to reflect this obsessive hyper-focussed side of ADHD/me in a multicoloured repetitive pattern in the background.  

The more I worked on my final piece, the more connections I made with what I wanted it to say about how I feel in, and see, the world:

• The donuts also resembling gaudy pop art halos, playing around with the marketing power of symbolism
• The pink top and blue bottoms referencing the use of colour in male/female social conditioning
• With the work’s now-obvious religious angle, the use of “I Hate Hate” and “Love Hurts” on the figure could connect to following a faith or to opposing faith/religion.
• The branding on the cross and the idea that nowadays it is not too ridiculous to imagine we might order “Crosses by Amazon”.

To me, the work could also represent the concept of being “crucified for your beliefs”.  For example, rejecting the socially constructed gender binary, and rejecting the notion that a person’s worth is measured in material objects.