CONCERNING

                              “What is truly alien to us?

 

Ourselves – the goings on beneath the surface of our own human form.”

I find it fascinating that one can feel completely at home in a certain place or within a certain building, and yet be completely alienated from the body that we inhabit. Humans have an incredible capacity for imagination and abstract thought, yet to most of us, the physical truth of what is inside our bodies is completely alien (if not utterly repugnant). Utilising traditional stereotypes of beauty in nature and art (particularly easel painting and the figure in landscape), my work explores and subverts accepted ideas of what is considered beautiful. Referencing medical illustrations, the engravings of Renaissance anatomists and the “X-Ray Style” paintings of our prehistoric ancestors, I attempt to synthesize these elements (perception; belonging; alienation; self), through the mediums of oil-paint and drawing. My work explores the sense of geographical belonging or alienation that is inherent to being human. I am playing with the representation and mapping of location, subverting it with memory and fantasy. Painting is my exploration of the perception of self, of ourselves by others and of how others perceive us.

 

Scott Henriksen.