Staircase II

Acrylic and charcoal on paper. Included in the Royal Academy of Art's Summer Exhibition 2014. Staircase II is one of a series of works which explore the relationship of excision and progression, that process whereby we need to cut things out to move on and develop. Here, cutting staircases through the earth becomes a metaphor for rising through the stuff of which we are, whereby we progress and see more through loss and removal. Creating the image is not just one of depiction; it offers a direct, physical equivalent in its making by scraping and erasing the picture plane to cutting into oneself through personal exploration, a process that is at once painful and exultant.