The Grotesquerie Of Trauma at Longstreet Art Lovers 1932

The grotesque is a visual genre of disorder, which applied in my paintings, acts as metaphor for the psychological disorder that is caused by childhood trauma. The montage of images in my paintings culminated from a body of work created in 2013 wherein I layered ink drawings digitally onto photographs. The result being grotesquely distorted figures of women.

A montage is the technique of combining in a single composition of pictorial elements from various sources, as parts of different photographs or fragments of printing, either to give the illusion that the elements belonged together originally or to allow each element to retain its separate identity as a means of adding interest or meaning to the composition. A montage is sequenced to condense space, time and information.

The elements in my work acts as memory fragments or subconscious fragments commenting on the fragmented nature in which trauma manifests in the mind. The process used to create these paintings is a personal attempt to navigate trauma.

The artworks from 2013 has been cut-up, rephrased, collaged and recontextualized as an act of meaning making and healing. The original repression of trauma is unearthed and remembered through the act of narration by means of the creative process. Representing trauma by means of grotesque figuration and the painting process is an attempt to express the chaos childhood abuse causes in the body and mind of a person as well as acting as a vehicle to process childhood trauma and the accompanied grief of the loss of a safe childhood and a loving, caring parent.