Stuffed Rat

2002. Oil on canvas.
630 x 260.
Price on request.

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About this work

This work was first shown in my exhibition True Life Story in 2004.

In all my works I find ways to engage the picture plane in an illusory way, so that the paintings do not read as windows or snapshots of some other in absentia space, but rather work as a space that exist in situ on the wall. Prior to this I had done this by creating receding alcoves in the picture plane, in which the objects were placed. In Stuffed Rat I changed this by pushing the objects right up against the picture surface, creating a more claustrophobic feel. I subverted the childhood imagery of the stuffed toy by placing it in a jar in order to spark off a narrative in the mind of the viewer. There is no fixed narrative; rather I try to trigger associations in people’s minds, leading them to create their own stories as to why this toy has ended up in a jar. In all my works I avoid creating fixed meanings, and instead work with triggers such as this.