Roz Cryer: Past Work 2008

artSPACE Berlin and Coningsby Gallery London

http://artspaceberlin.blogspot.com/2008/11/roz-cryer-and-lara-mellon-28-november.html
http://www.galleries.co.uk/pr/2009/SgG-DEBUT-ART---THE-CONINGSBY-RozCryer-1.htm

Rich Terrain

'Developing world' 2 - 30 x 42 cm -

Mixed Media on Board -

'Appointment at the end of the World' - 59 x 42 cm -

Mixed Media on Board - SOLD

'Passage' - 40 x 50 cm -

Mixed Media on Canvas -

I have many inconsistencies, contradictions and paradoxes in me and I move between two very different worlds. The developing and the developed. Often it is too much to expect resolution, and in those instances, the step to take is to recognize the anomalies and to hold them. My work is that ‘holding’. Those moments are held in these pieces.

…A bringing together of the inner and outer landscapes…

Outer landscapes: Africa. Its bush, its animals, particularly that incredible being, the elephant. The city and rural homes… beaches… mountains… culture and its art. Wealth and poverty. Europe. Its cities… its countryside… its culture. Art… the decorative arts… my background in printed textile design… transpersonal psychology…

Inner landscapes: Dreams, symbolism, instinct and intuition, issues of conscience, serendipity and changing fortune. Inconsistencies, contradictions and paradoxes. Ignorance and realization. Again, the elephant which features strongly here too. My daughter… illness.

Each of the various parts that make up these landscapes are in themselves rich source material for a collection of art works but each of these parts overlap and influence the others to such an extent that the bringing together of these areas happened spontaneously, initially as mixed media pieces and later, oil paintings. I am unable to view the various aspects of my life in isolation and I listen to the messages that are being communicated through my ‘Inner Landscape’.

The approach I have taken with the mixed media paper constructs has been one of free flow. Allowing the piece to develop from the whole self rather than just the conscious self. Like dreams, which happen spontaneously and are full of symbolism and clues as to the state of one’s psyche and life, these pieces have just unfolded and aim to reflect how interwoven the Inner and Outer worlds are.

Having explored so many influences during the paper work phase, I came to rest on what I feel to be the essence and culmination of all these elements as they stand at this point. There is surrender to/ acceptance of the confusions, contradictions and inconsistencies in life as I strive to move through them, symbolized by the suggestion of a doorway. The fabrics on which I paint allude to the observation that often times paintings take place on blank canvases. In reality, concepts are rarely painted on blank canvases but are laid down on cultural fabrics that alter or impact our perceptions.

Each painting poses the questions, is this a landscape emerging out of a dream or is it a dream emerging out of a landscape?. In each case, the painting is signed before the question is answered.