Ascender : unfolding fantasies of control, power and collapse through expanded painting

Abstract

The "Ascender" artworks are described herein. "Ascender" is about transcending desires of power, control and collapse through a complex "taking-apart" of the artist's mental model. In a two-part arrangement of artworks the artist explores fantasies of power, control and collapse and the conflation of romanticism with these fantasies through an expanded painting practice. This project is an unraveling of personal mythologies through the application of multiple simultaneous mediums that include performance, drawing, painting, and installation. This 'unwrapping' of ideologies and narratives of self, this 'unfolding', becomes itself a transcendent act through which the artist's overall vision is conveyed. It is the working through of ideas that becomes the essence of this artwork, whether it is a painting, video, or drawing. This practice also engages the expanded field of painting in terms of direct external influences on the medium such as surveillance technologies and reflectography, as well as methodological influences derived from external practices such as User Experience Strategy that have affected the artist's regard for the viewer.