Statement

A few years ago, I discovered a series of radiographic photos of microbes in a biology book hidden on the shelves of a used book store. I was immediately drawn to the images because of the surprising similarity in form and colour that they held to previous work of mine that was completely unrelated in theme and source material. This initial curiosity grew into an art project in which I am now seeking out images related to microbiology and medical research in sources ranging from obscure scientific publications to clippings from local newspapers. After sorting through this material, I embark on a series of sketches in an attempt to work out which of these collected images are best suited in both form and concept to eventually become the basis of a painted composition. While going about the process of building up layers of paint and the depiction of each virus, bacterium, or parasite I spend a lot of time asking myself how this image can operate as a symbol relating to a larger platform of ideas.

Initially, there was a rather broad selection of source material that consisted of just about anything that is regularly put under a microscope, while I formed my criteria almost exclusively on aesthetics as I found this new miniature world surprisingly beautiful. But as time went on and the project grew in scope, I was drawn increasingly towards microbes that have been known to cause unpleasant diseases. Names such as “Ebola, HIV, and Malaria” or more recently “Mad Cow Disease, SARS, and Asian Bird Flu” can inspire very menacing associations and I came to focus on the cold fear that such invisible beasties can imprint on our collective imagination.

I consider myself generally unscientific in character and interests, and while portraying organisms that are often invisible to the naked eye, I have wondered if these microbes actually even exist and what makes them different from the witches, demons, and “bad blood” that supposedly caused people to be ill before the Enlightenment of the 18^th century. This has developed on the other end of the spectrum into a tendency to marvel at the advent of the scientific method as a rather unique system of belief and pursuit of ideas, because large chunks of scholarship are consistently thrown out as no longer relevant when old assumptions are challenged by new theories and discoveries. I know of no other system of thought that has been so adaptive throughout its history.

This all leads me to the conclusion that what I am doing here is using hand-made visual illustrations of microbes and parasites, responsible for the most dangerous diseases that exist in the modern world, as metaphors for social dysfunction. This is concentrated specifically on the role that fear plays and how it motivates different elements of our society. Making paintings that are like the mutterings of a hypochondriac is to me a type of alchemical experiment or pseudo-science with the goal of investigating the rationalized system of fear that now seemingly dominates all forms of public debate, whether scientific, political, or social.