“IN THE CUBE”

In the Cube was a piece I worked on silently in my bedroom, and wasn’t sure if I’d share. Not because it was some private matter… I actually can’t recall why I hesitated. But I did, for whatever reason.

A 2am portrait of my teenaged friends, during a night of heavy drinking and other illegal-teenager-things… this was the epitome of growing up in London. I think the fact that I was given free reign as a teenager to act out and experiment is why I’m a (comparatively) boring young adult now. I got it all out of my system.

Alex, Anastasia, Zaki, Celest, Solomon. My goal was to try and paint informally, relying on a low angle to communicate the feeling that the viewer is sitting down with the subjects. That they are part of the scene. It was my first attempt at ‘authorial intrusion’ in my work, or at least… my first attempt of implying what I understood authorial intrusion might mean. This piece was also the birthplace of an ongoing motif of chess in my work. As for those friends… contact with this group has slowly faded away as time marches on.