Every society, both in a general and personal sense, entertains ‘elaborate and ongoing thoughts about it’s ancestors and their powerful impact on the lives of the living.’ The fragility of children and the reality of humans as inherently flawed means that growing up in a family creates inevitable wounds that most of us carry around for life. By translating strange and distressing photos from my family photos of the vulnerable moments in my childhood into a religious context through devotional altar-pieces typically depicting the narratives of saints and holy icons, there is hope that in line with the Catholic notion of salvation and redemption from the sufferings of life, the process, the time spent with and the laborious act of painting becomes a technology for prayer and healing.
Altar-pieces traditionally being painted on long-lasting and preserved timber and adorned with gold are mimicked in the work by use of scrap-wood and edible gold-leaf, reflective of the short-fall between inspiring, holy icons and my own imperfect family. The intentional gaps left in the imagery speak to the visceral nature of memory and prayer which fades and morphs over time and encouraged me to ‘move on’ with the painting as a metaphor for moving on from childhood.
