Zoe Crosse

zoecrosse@aol.com

Education B.A. Fine Art First Class Honours Degree. Painting. London Metropolitan University 2008
B.ED. Hons. Degree. Education. Middlesex University 1987

The Crypt. Kings Cross.London. All This Time. Oct 10th 2008.Five female portraits.Oils and resins on canvas.

DegreeArt.com. Collect 4. Vyner Street.London. Sept 30th 2008.Toy Paintings. Child’s Play. Oil on canvas.

Contemporary Art Projects. Old Street .London.Start Your Collection. August 1st 2008. Female portraits and Toys from the Child’s Play collection. Oil and resins on canvas.

The Lock. London. Child’s Play. January 2008. Seekers . Oil on canvas.

The Nelly Dean. Soho London. Painted. April 2007. Disconnected. Oil on canvas.

The Lock. London. Burden of desire. January 2007. Disconnected. Oil on canvas.

The Brick Lane Gallery. London. Peace Camp 2006. Hippy Shit. Oil on canvas.

Hackney Round Chapel. London. Nausea 2006. Epiphany. Oil on canvas

Transition Gallery. London. Index. 2006. Between The Lines. Artist Book.

Mary Ward Centre. London. Viridian. 2005. Selected works on canvas.

Publications Writing selected for an anthology. Your Messages by L.Rees & S.Salway. bluechrome publications
January 2008
Awards Bursary. Satellite Enterprise. Research for Pages Exhibition. Notice Gallery. London. 2007

Works in collections .
Slippage I. Sold at Contemporary Art projects. August 2008
Slippage II . Sold at Contempoary Art Projects. August 2008-09-08
Gate Keepers. Ms Theresa Kemp. London. Sept 2008-09-08
Burden of Desire. Peter at The Ferry Boat. London .Sept 2008-09-08
Breakdown. Christine Tait. London. January 2008
Dis-connected. Kimberly Beechin. Nelly Dean pub. Soho. Dec 2007
Mis-connected . Ms Kimberly Beechin.Nelly Dean pub. Soho. Dec 2007
Comedy of Power. Michael Palendin. Lee Valley Estates .Sept 2007
The Daisy Chain Makers. Ms Theresa Kemp. London. August 2007
Epiphany. Nausea Exhibition. Anon . Hackney Round House. Nov 2006
After Kline. Barbara Lindner. Mary Ward Center. Queens Square. Sept 05
After Klee. Unknown purchaser. Mary Ward Center. Queens Square. Sept 05
Into the Void.Scott dawson.Mary Ward Center.Queens Square Sept 05

Statement

Parodia (Greek)

It has been written that Post modern parodies occur when elements of one work are lifted and reused, though not necessarily ridiculed. For a Post-Modern artist such as myself, parody is a means of connecting with a past ousted by enlightenment and mediated by modernity; of course the differences inspired by modernity have to be registered.

Parody is inherent in my process on a very physical level, as I experiment with the techniques of illusion used by the old masters, though I may juxtapose the art of illusion with reference to the process and to the idea of surface.

Thus far, all my work has evolved from and been driven by an intrigue with identity. I have studied fragments of philosophy, researching the ideas of self and of reality. A myriad of philosophical ideas now inspire and infect my work, not only by providing subject matter, but also by providing a means of understanding and creating an effective process.

Though I admit to being a fledgling in the area of philosophy I have parodied the basics of my possibly basic understanding of philosophers such as Foucault, Nietzsche, Baudrillard, Derrida and Sartre, in my painting process. The paintings are formed in layers, like history and like identify in a metaphorical sense. I use resins and glazes to build up layers and the process is often exposed, metaphorically revealing truths, faults, accidents, under paintings and collisions; the art of illusion, as celebrated by the masters, is employed without adherence to academic rules, so revealing a more chaotic truth in its gaps and at the same time producing a subversive or polemic; a counter reaction to a history fraught with hegemony and misogyny. History creates identities and belief systems help to fix them ; Foucault would have us dig and sift between the layers of histories meta narratives, in an archaeological attempt to reveal how power and it’s violence create unfounded truths. Inspired by Nietzsche’s Genealogy of Morals, Foucault explains how history attempts to hide its lack of truth. Derrida explains how difference defines us and how because of it, other is created, my subject matter is concerned with the experience of other. I feel that Sartre teaches us to question being, to unpick it and Baurillard speaks of hyper realities, which I liken to layers. So in an ongoing attempt to understand what it is to be human through the act of interpretation and painting, my painting evolves. .....and self dissolves. Layers reveal under paintings, greens and pinks refer to the art of illusion and collisions on the canvas reveal power play as one decision obliterates another.
My schizophrenic, eclectic, gleaning of ideas forms a chaos which I have to embrace, as out of this chaos comes my work. Perhaps this is an embracing of ‘the hysterical woman in the attic’.

My projects produce sets of works which have a unity, but projects differ from each other in style, form and content. I respond to each project with different techniques and aims, working at times with only a few basic under painting colours, then at other times using a far more Baroque or painterly approach. Subject matter is usually drawn from photos I have taken and then re photographed and processed. This places a distance between the viewer and the viewed and embodies my notions of hyper reality and fading memory. I get a feeling for an image, it speaks to me and I need to communicate the feeling through painting. My images always seem to have an inherent sense of ,‘a secret and silent violence’, often they are tinged with a melancholic sense of loss and emptiness , perhaps because, despite all the searching there is no answer. I want my paintings to challenge belief. For as Sartre would have us, ironically, believe, belief is the problem, never the answer.

‘these layers, these divisions, these meanings or the lack thereof,
these fissures and abysses beside which I stumble, over which I reel: is the place, the space, they constitute,
which I never satisfactorily experience but from which the fear
I might be torn away appals me, me, or what might most be me?’ 1

More than anyone or anything, I feel that listening to Francis Bacon speak about his process helped me overcome my fear of my own process. I would have to say, at this point in time, that if I could link my work in any way, to notions of parody then would have to be in identifying with a statement he made and making it into a philosophy which I parody daily. For I respond to the paint, with a certain amount of instinct and I do not know how this happens. At one time this was extremely worrying, but now, because of his words I embrace serendipity, accident and chance, I respond to what the paint does and I am constantly amazed at the end product when one allows a certain amount of chaos to enter the work. I never know how a painting will turn out.

“I was trying in despair the other day to paint the head of a specific person, I used a very big brush and a great deal of paint and I put it on very freely, and I simply didn’t know what I was doing and suddenly something clicked....I suppose it has a life of its own.” 2

1 CK Williams
from The Singing
© Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

2Francis Bacon.
D.S. Sylvester Interviews.
Thames Hudson.