This piece is suggestive of religious themes of anointing with oil. Oil is richly symbolic in most cultures of blessing, favour, purification, life, light, healing and unity. I am interested in religious symbolism and it’s power to speak ‘about’ and ‘to’ the human experience. In an increasingly diverse and yet still very divided country, this work is an intimate expression of our individual place in the world, as well as symbolic of opportunities for healing those divisions.
The work is designed to engage the viewer in a reflective ‘out of time’ experience, to slow them down and to reflect upon those elements which we have in common and build and bind communities.
A distillation of a key idea in many faith-cultures has the anointing with oil at its core thus providing a unifying factor for both faith and social, celebrating the potential unity of the human spirit across cultures and social divides.