The intention of ‘heart’ was set.
Without a preconceived visual plan, the installation HEART unfolded...
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There’s a synergy between the theme and the room itself.
The interior is hidden from view - a secret room. From the outside the door blends with the surrounding wall, so when closed the main evidence of a possible room behind the wall is just a handle. Which a lot of people miss.
There’s a sense of hiding in plain sight, or entering the parts of our heart that are hidden…
“Normally I avoid painting at night because it skews the colours, they look really different at night (painted under artificial light) than in daylight. However I made an exception because I didn’t have much time left to paint in this space. I was feeling a little flat with the installation, which is generally a good indicator that something is missing. The mural didn’t feel as truthful or expressive as I hoped, so I gave myself permission to be a little reckless. I was particularly drawn to the wardrobe, which felt like a central part of the story somehow. Inside I’d only given it a cursory under layer, so I set the intention of handing a paintbrush to my inner child. I sensed that her voice had been ignored. The marks painted became wilder, childish… at times like an angry fist. I continued the yellow paint out of the wardrobe, up adjacent walls… like a child wildly putting their fingerprint everywhere. ‘This is me. I’m here. This is my story.’
“Originally I planned to put coloured film on all the windows, but in this small space it threw the colours unfavourably, rather than playing with them. One of the lower windows had a layer of film on it that was difficult to remove. I found it too dark, with the greenery outside making it appear even murkier. In the end the effect of the window reminded me a little of dissociation – that there was something murky and dark behind a pane of glass that needed to be censored.
There’s a vibrating effect that can happen when certain colours are placed next to each other. When viewed in person the colours of this mural pulse, as though the walls of HEART have a heartbeat, or house breath.
“HEART has a sense of fluttering, with butterfly-like marks and movement throughout. On the floor, up the walls. I particularly love the bright yellow butterfly in the centre of the painting, a colour I associate with our authentic inner child, and also with joy and spirituality.
“This key had been kept ‘just in case’ for decades, because we didn’t know what door it was for. It became known as the key to a secret room. When I was photographing the mural the ceramic cup housing the key accidentally fell and smashed. Inside HEART, with its many cupboards, the exposed key felt symbolic – an invitation and means to open the hidden parts of the heart.
