Thirteen Archetypes 2020-2021

In the early 1990s I became a pseudo-archaeologist on a dig. My dig site was the rubbish bin in the black and white darkroom where I was teaching. The bin contained discarded image fragments and I was particularly attracted to the small unfixed artefacts that were still sensitive to light. As they were retrieved from the bin with chemical stains and odd marks from contact with other discarded materials, like magic, subtle colours appeared and I felt like I had discovered a significant cache of chance, but personally inspiring, imagery. 

I was quite aware of the symbolism of this imagery taken 'from the darkness into the light' and 'from the unconsciousness of the rubbish bin into the consciousness of my interest in the potential of these image fragments transformed by chance'.

At that time I enlarged the fragments on Canon inkjet printers and produced a suite of works that I titled The Lure of Unrealised Desire (some of that original series is also on this website).

In 2019 a book was produced, Adelaide Art Photographers 1970-2000, and a couple of those original artworks were reproduced in that publication. The editor organised an exhibition to launch the book and he encouraged the participants to include works that had featured in the book. I decided to revisit some of the image fragments that I had gathered for the Lure suite and make use of my, more recently acquired, scanning and Photoshop skills.

I had kept several boxes of image fragments. Though some had changed, many were still close to what they had been 30 years earlier. I revisited three images from the 1990s exhibitions to be shown in the launch exhibition. The first image in the website 'Gallery' shows those artworks as they were presented in the exhibition.

Those fragments continued to hold a personal fascination so I ventured on and, over a number of months, I produced ten more new images. During that process I realised that my renewed attraction to this imagery was strongly influenced by the Covid-19 pandemic which seemed like a return of the 'plague'. The emotional intensity of the times, the etching of aspects of one's personality, I saw reflected in these expressive image fragments.

'Archetype' is a word I associate with Carl Jung and his concept of personality types that feature in myths, dreams, literature, on stage and in films. The titles I have given these images represent my projection onto each image, so, these are also an unintended self-portrait!  

Most definitely none of these titles are gender specific. In fact I am not even sure they are person specific, except in myths or dreams. For myself, I can identify with each emotion and each personality type. At 78 I am neither handsome or beautiful but, at odd moments, I may have a brief moment of feeling 'handsome'. As a visual artist I am naturally attracted to and, in a sense, I am nourished by 'beauty'.