Artist Statement 6/2008

My work is at a place of transition: the focus is shifting from a place of imaginary, disjointed narratives, to an exploration of form. Previously, I have investigated the relationship between the doll figures and “monster clouds.” These clouds contained combinations of visual references to weather, animal parts, and decoration. Recently, the dolls have been disappearing; so seductive is the exploration of the monster itself.

Now, my practice is becoming more and more focused on the creation of these monsters. I am using the idea of a “monster” as a template on which to build representations of the other as creatures that both explode and implode; living conglomerations that are on the verge of formlessness, yet are somehow threatening. These monsters contain figurative elements that are hidden and interwoven into their surfaces and structures. There are references to the skins and anatomies of fruit, sea life, insects, mammals, and the male & female bodies. The style moves between pure representational drawing, features of animestyle cartooning, gestural and chance marks, and highly decorative surfaces. The compositions and forms are heavily influences by the Symbolists, particularly Redon. There is a play between containment & dissolution, that which is bound and that which is on the attack. These creatures are intended to be both terrifying and sympathetic, repulsive and elegant, active and passive. Some are immobile, while others are bursting with uncontrollable movement. Within the process, I sometimes generate an imagined function, or story for the creature, and these mini-narratives find their ways into the titles of the work. Ultimately, I am curious about the dissonance located between physical beauty and psychological annihilation: the tension between that which is identifiable, therefore somehow knowable, and that which is disparate, un-whole, asymmetrical, and composed of contradictions.

For beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror, which we are still just able to endure, and we are so awed because it serenely disdains to annihilate us. -Rilke

Please send inquiries to business@hayleybarker.com.

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	My work is at a place of transition: the focus is shifting from a place of imaginary, disjointed narratives, to an exploration of form. Previously, I have investigated the relationship between the doll figures and “monster clouds.” These clouds contained combinations of visual references to weather, animal parts, and decoration. Recently, the dolls have been disappearing; so seductive is the exploration of the monster itself. Now, my practice is becoming more and more focused on the creation of these monsters. I am using the idea of a “monster” as a template on which to build representations of the other as creatures that both explode and implode; living conglomerations that are on the verge of formlessness, yet are somehow threatening. These monsters contain figurative elements that are hidden and interwoven into their surfaces and structures. There are references to the skins and anatomies of fruit, sea life, insects, mammals, and the male & female bodies. The style moves between pure representational drawing, features of animestyle cartooning, gestural and chance marks, and highly decorative surfaces. The compositions and forms are heavily influences by the Symbolists, particularly Redon. There is a play between containment & dissolution, that which is bound and that which is on the attack. These creatures are intended to be both terrifying and sympathetic, repulsive and elegant, active and passive. Some are immobile, while others are bursting with uncontrollable movement. Within the process, I sometimes generate an imagined function, or story for the creature, and these mini-narratives find their ways into the titles of the work. Ultimately, I am curious about the dissonance located between physical beauty and psychological annihilation: the tension between that which is identifiable, therefore somehow knowable, and that which is disparate, un-whole, asymmetrical, and composed of contradictions. For beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror, which we are still just able to endure, and we are so awed because it serenely disdains to annihilate us. -Rilke Please send inquiries to business@hayleybarker.com.
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