Untitled Moments, works on paper, 2020

Untitled Moments are a contemporary take on the aesthetic of Matisse’s Cut-Outs. Drawing inspiration from his exuberantly composed areas of flat colour, I turned to my personal archive of cellphone photos to create abstractions from the untitled moments that make up our days. Each photograph’s positive and negative shapes are inverted, with what is normally considered the subject matter cut out and removed. However, these subjects remain present, brought to life by the periphery of flat colour that frames their absence. Each print is constructed of many layered cut-outs, playfully jostling in space to create dynamic compositions. Glimpsed through one another, the layers overlap and combine to generate new forms and colours. Recognizable elements reveal themselves as details from both public and private imagery – landscapes, people, places and objects, plucked from the diverse realms of travel, work, leisure, domestic life, celebratory and everyday occasions. Each composition also incorporates a cut-out news image, a fleeting view of a world event whose significance often enters our consciousness via cellphone. By exploring my trove of phone imagery as source material, I examine the role these ubiquitous devices play as interface between the individual and their surroundings. The layering of recorded moments culminates in a multi-faceted narrative of lived experience, presented over the eight works in the series.