Symbolic Expressionism

Son of Man (2007)

Symbolic expressionism emphasises the emotional response to symbols rather than their literal meaning alone. I find it a particularly gratifying style to work in because it allows me to access my left brain to find some kind of logic, but to be guided by my right brain that is somewhat governed by motivations other than logic. Often I create and use abstract sequences of symbols that seem to be devoid of all literal explanation, only to find that these sequences of symbols subsequently stimulate me to create imagery with a more recognisable social context.

To say I invented Symbolic Expressionism is perhaps a bit incorrect in that emotionally responding to symbols and using symbolic representation has a long history in art. In fact, you could probably say that art itself was the invention of cavemen emotionally responding to a symbol when they held their hand up to cave walls and spat out pigment to make a silhouette. With time, this gave rise to shamans who codified some of the symbols around them in order to access the realms of the spiritual. Painting the body with dots, wearing an animal mask or participating in ceremony all further evolved some kind of symbolic response that didn't always have a literal explanation.

As art and religion became more codified, both became more literal and representative, but the symbolic elements never disappeared completely. Halos, hands, fish, crucifixes, squares and circles all were used to symbolically communicate something, and were in turn emotionally responded to.

While the general trend of humanity over the last few millennia has been towards a consensus of meaning and that which can be explained, there have also been the throwbacks to a state beyond definition. Perhaps the words of William Blake, a poet and a visual artist, provide the best explanation for artists wanting to break through to the other side of consensus. In the Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Blake wrote:

"If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things through narrow chinks of his cavern."

Maybe an example of artists cleansing the doors can be found in East Asia where a form of calligraphy involves painting an ancient Chinese character. In this art form, the meaning of the character is less important than the expression demonstrated in the brush strokes used to create it. At times, the artist doesn’t even know the meaning of the character such is the meaning's level of unimportance. Another example can be found in the style of Geometric Abstraction. In 1915, a Russian artist named Kasimir Malevich painted a black square as a way to escape socially constructed meaning. This gave rise to a new breed of artists concerned with feeling more than understanding.  Occasionally, artists like Simon Gouverneur have also used symbols like the way that Geometric Abstractionists used shapes. Specifically, a shamanistic response to the symbol has been more important than any socially agreed meaning.

Simon Gouverneur - Charm

As for me, I feel that the cleansing of the door doesn’t require a destruction of the frame, rather, it requires an engagement with the realm beyond understanding, which may include a reconsideration of what the door actually is and how it can be used. I feel I am a bit different from the likes of Gouverneur because he tended to compartmentalise each symbol. I like my symbols to be able to work in isolation, but also fuse into others around them to create a greater whole. In addition, his use of symbols seemed very constrained. I find that my verson not only has more emotional response to the symbol, but for me, it gives rise to me using representations that have a more defined meaning that others can relate to.

Like the East Asian calligraphers, I like to emotionally respond to the symbol but I am also a little different because I create sequences of symbols. Furthermore, most of the ancient Chinese characters lack pictorial representation whereas mine have some kind of recogniseable imagery.

I do feel driven by a desire to see and understand, so there is a door that I am working from and a vision that I want to eventually reveal itself to me. Simply destroying everything and leaving a dogs breakfast, for me, is not a cleansing of the doors. Furthermore, there is no marriage by replacing meaning with emotion or restraint with anarchy. The aim must be to reconcile the two to go beyond what either can do in isolation.

Studio Wall (2012)

I first started painting in symbols in 2007 as a response to the emotions I was feeling while being surrounded by Chinese characters that I didn't know the meaning of. I realised that despite not knowing what the Chinese writing said, it was still communicating something to me as a result of the expressive qualities used in the ratios of line lengths, character in the brush strokes, and complexity of the character. I then remembered that I felt something as a child when looking at hieroglyphics in Egypt. In hindsight, my feelings were probably shaped by the social connotations of the eye, crosses, and birds.

Rise of China (2008)

Another Tear from the Eye of Horus (2010)

Some of the symbols I use are my own creations and they give me both an emotional as well as cognitive meaning. For example, I often use a motif of a DNA-like snake that is undergoing a kind of cell division to give new life. I am not sure exactly what the motif means, but it gives me feelings of interconnection between many things. Furthermore, the creation of the flowing lines that twist and intertwine the snake’s body gives me an emotional feeling of both freedom and constriction. Perhaps the motif is my emotional and cognitive response to the Aboriginal story of a creation serpent fused with scientific logic concerning DNA. I am not sure, but I think of both when I see it.

Ants Attack Their Genes in the Rainbow Serpent's DNA (2010)

Some of the symbols I use are drawn from history. For example, I frequently use the cross and the fish that have been used to symbolise Christianity. My interest in the symbols is not to subvert them, nor to praise them, it is only to consider the symbols of a religion that underpins the value system of the culture I grew up in. In my mind, a fish conveys a very different image from a man bleeding on a crucifix and that interests me when thinking about Christian belief and how that belief is represented visually.

Like Gouverneur, my interest in symbols has perhaps influenced the mediums I like to work in. Gouverneur liked to use tempura, oils and acrylic because he wanted his paintings to be timeless. For me, a similar feeling has often contributed to my attraction to rock painting. I like the fact that a rock painting can not be anchored in a specific time or culture.

Perhaps the work of psychologist Carl Jung provides some answers as to why painting in symbols seems to feed a desire to transcend time and place. Jung proposed the existence of archetypes that were common to all human cultures, and I think that by painting in symbols, these archetypes are accessed in a way that forms an affinity will all human culture. I am a proud Australian, but I do feel a strong affinity to the cultures of the world, particularly ancient cultures and I think the realm of symbolism has enhanced that affinity.

The ability to appreciate symbolic expressionism really depends on the mental frame of the onlooker. Symbolic expressionism requires a suspension of logic, just as logic must be suspended when looking at a painting by Picasso. While my paintings contain logic, because they were not driven by logic they can’t just be transformed into a verbal format of the left brain. For me, that is the strength of a symbol over a word. Symbols can have a defined meaning like a word, but they seem to go beyond what a word alone can communicate.

Studio Wall (2012)

Untitled (2012)

Untitled

Christians Schooling Around a Dead Fish (2012)