Taking A Risk

Mountains are a popular source of subject matter for artists to paint, particularly here in Cumbria. The landscape represented here, however, is not natural, but consists of plastic credit cards, an ubiquitous sign of our reliance on borrowing money to finance our lifestyles or ‘to make ends meet’. This conflation of the economic with the natural, implied in the work, invites the viewer to consider a range of different interpretations, analogies, and metaphors about the relationship between the two. The notions for example of conquest, escape, or risk taking, are perhaps just as appropriate to borrowing money as they are to climbing a mountain. The allure of the simulated silver and gold surfaces of credit cards are designed to attract our attention and imply value and luxury. By cutting and rearranging the plastic into an intricate glittering, tessellation the mosaic surfaces of Byzantium are imitated as an alternative, conjuring up the mountain in its more ancient guise, as a representation of the sacred. It has the potential to offer spiritual enlightenment and guidance, but here it is transformed into a miniature landscape of its former self and literally cut down to size.