Lino cut print, watercolour, ink.
A material investigation of the nature of images and image making. Taking inspiration from reformation era iconoclasm. Statues of Christ and of saints were sometimes left in situe but white-washed. Their heads and hands were removed; the parts that made them human, that made them relatable, the parts which were ‘in the image of God’. These disfigured forms became quiet, abstract lumps. They became blind witnesses, intended as a testament to the powerlesseness of the image, and the folly of icon veneration. Of course, these muted saints carry their own kind of power and iconography: The image is not destroyed, only mutatated.
The absence of an image is an image.
Made during the 2020 Coronovirus pandemic when there was not opportunity to make participatory works or live performances, these pictures are also a tentative introduction to my making pictures and presenting art which is a fixed image. This no doubt had some effect on the selection and treatment of the subject.
Jim Lockey 