Neve Kilbane
Mater Maria Catholic College
LOST CONNECTION
Painting
Acrylic on canvas
We live in a world of distorted realities and fragmented expectations, consumed by technology, where the selfishness of social media feeds our narcissism. How often do we really pause in nature and reflect? I believe the ocean seeks to bring us back to meaningful connections with each other and the environment that surrounds us. My body of work is intended to be a protest against our escalating addiction to technology. Using a pixelated style expresses how technology manipulates our sense of reality and connection to place.
My artmaking practice has been influenced by the study and interpretation of the following artists: Imants Tillers, Peter Sharp.
Marker's Commentary
Lost Connection comprises a grand vista featuring a deep phthalo blue sea, sandwiched between a rocky outcrop and vibrant sunset painted on multiple panels arranged together to portray a grand seascape, evoking the traditions of 19th century Romantic paintings. While each canvas frames a particular view, the smaller panels in the composition draw attention to the images disappearing into abstract forms. Across multiple panels pixilated dabs of isolated colour have been painted using a divisionist technique. As they abut one another they fracture the scene, creating an allusion to our contemporary world of monitors, television screens and phone imagery, inferring a world that may soon shatter.
Immense confidence is shown in the bold brushwork, the richly textured surface and the lively, almost lurid colour selection, with chaotic blues and russet browns sitting alongside golden yellows and tangy orange. Movement and life are celebrated with theatrical exuberance and a fierceness which is expressive and exaggerated. The composition of the painting cements the sense of drama: with rocky platforms in the foreground, the central slice of sea with its ever-so-straight horizon line and the expansive turbulent sky. The tide gushing around the escarpment and into the rock crevices brings the eye back to the foreground, building a sense of tension and excitement. There is brutal beauty to this coastline yet the tension between memory and presence creates a sense of anxiety. While celebrating the majesty of the natural world the underlying message is evoked through painterly emotion, serving as a reminder of humankind's insignificance in relation to the power of this larger world.