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Artist Statement:
Artist Statement
It is not unusual to see
tragic or emotionally
provoking subjects depicted as
art or romanticised by the
media. I wish to show how such
deep, dark thoughts, for
example those of being trapped
in depression, can be
portrayed as romantic notions.
Consider the painting by John
Everett Millais of “Ophelia”
from Shakespeare's Hamlet;
Ophelia allows herself to
drown. The painting is
beautiful; the artist has
portrayed grief and death in a
manner that is pleasing to the
eye.
Likewise, William Holman Hunt
painted Isabella and the pot
of basil from a John Keats's
poem, in the pot is her dead
lover's head. Realistically
this idea should fill us with
horror, yet the painting is
lovely and portrays a romantic
idea of lost love.
Stephen Hilyard's “King Wave”,
which features five large
images of waves, has been
paired with smaller images of
cemetery tombstones with
soft-focus lettering that
helps to soften and
romanticise the concept of
death; both are reference to
human demise. King Wave offers
a strong example of
contemporary approaches to
mortality, which contrast the
theatricality of the sublime
with the banality of death. It
has been suggested that this
work...
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Elizabeth Branley (Page 2 of 2)
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