Lizzie Mann
Personal Statement
Graffiti has been an important starting point for my work. I like the bright colours that are often used and the quick, expressive way graffiti artists use spray paint –itself a soft, misty medium – to produce graphic, hard-edged results. I am attracted by the shapes, lines and patterns in everyday man-made objects, such as the geometrical architecture of modern buildings and intricate circuit boards in computers, but also by the more organic shapes found in nature. The same combinations occur in satellite images of the world – the organic shapes of land and sea, and the overlays of man-made grids in cities and roads. I often use photography as an aid in research, taking close-ups of objects so that the subject becomes ambiguous and the scale of the images is concealed. The ‘dreamings’ of Australian aboriginal peoples have also been an inspiration.
My aim is to combine these different influences to create an aesthetically pleasing image that contains many contrasts: very detailed passages next to large expanses of flat colour; fluid marks interwoven with strict grids or matrices of dots. Balance and control are important to me, but there is usually a part of the picture that ‘escapes’ around a corner or off an edge, or onto a nearby surface, like a daydream.
Recently, my work has begun to acquire a third dimension. The paintings are still predominantly flat, but they have acquired sides and protrusions, and they have begun to form colonies that interact with each other and their surroundings.
I want to create interesting images that work at a distance but become even more rewarding at close range. I hope there will always be new things to notice and discover, even after long inspection, reflecting the many influences that have gone into each work. One or two aspects of each work may be mentioned in its title, but I leave the title sufficiently vague that it does not prescribe a particular interpretation. Although my work always begins with real objects, landscapes and cityscapes – and although in many cases the inspiration probably remains visible in the finished piece – I want to give people the opportunity to discover and interpret my work largely for themselves.