This is where trains of thought collide . . . words and images, sometimes contradictory, come together to create a greater whole. A deeply felt encounter with life’s events which may, or may not, have gone un-noticed when they first occurred.
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A good boy: receiving favour ~ Tom Stoppard’s play “Every Good Boy Deserves Favour” criticises the alleged Soviet practice of treating political dissidence as a form of mental illness. People who behave differently to the accepted norm tend to be regarded with suspicion. The boy in this picture doesn’t speak for himself, there are no symbols he can use to do that so consequently, there’s no way to tell if his behaviour has been good or bad when he’s rewarded with a teddy bear.
Oh my love . . . ~ Should everything we say be taken literally, especially by people who know us? My apartment was raided by the police because my friend and I were overheard threatening to commit murder by two boys playing in the street. The fact is we were re-enacting a scene from the Italian job. Regardless I remained friends with both the boys’ mothers.
Coming of age: it is ever thus ~ I wanted to create a quiet and intimate picture exploring impressions of gender stereotyping and role enforcement. Whilst doing so it somehow became important for me to reference the secret pain of first sex and the pathway to a life of drudgery, or the joy of home-making, a naturally simple act, that young women are led into. The figure’s anonymity might be seen as reinforcing the sense of normalcy, that it could be anyone, everyone.
A bit of skirt: ~ The man in the picture was my bank manager for a while. He was so well groomed, so functional and business-like even “good morning” coming from his mouth sounded like a binding contract. He professed to run a “tight ship”, however whenever a young woman walked by the pavement level window he had the disconcerting habit or jumping up from his desk and staring at her greedily. It was hard to tell what was running through his mind.
© Rivenrod 2015
