Taboo Series: Milk in its Time (2010)

My recent painting, all triptychs and produced in series of three, involve inspections of place, particularly places that I know well and revisit time and again.

"These places include real and imagined locations, and other artists work. They also include reinventions of my own work destroyed in a major studio fire in 2000. These 'places' are a negotiation of who we are and how we deal with our own personal identity defined by place.

I attempt to deal with identity, loss, memory and notions of choice or fate. I am interested in those liminal moments where we are on the threshold of moving into another place, those sensory thresholds that are at a point of intellectual and visual negotiation with ourselves. The three part works offer options and potential narratives. They stem from my early film-making career combined with my interest in early medieval painting. The triptych format provides a possibility of 'moving on' through visual negotiation or 'test' as well as recognition of visual 'pollution' clouding our way. The material is significant too. I use photography with painting, concluding with layers of tinted resin. The high gloss finish seduces but also offers a visceral challenge to the viewer" Terry Shave.