The drawings constitute a form of exploration, less methodical than a scientific investigation, but nonetheless experimental. The starting point is a very simple formal concept, which develops and takes on an increasing imaginative dimension as I respond to the opportunities that are thrown up. This is the structure of the cage, which can be considered literally as the body which encloses us, or more metaphysically as the limits placed on us by virtue of our character, which influences and shapes our actions and reactions.
There is a retreat from representation. Rather than exploring spaces in the outside world, the gaze is turned inward to explore what lies within: ‘abstraction is a form of retreat, an anchor for a critical attitude, a place in which to subsume form under a central principle: speculation. Speculation is here understood as the act of viewing, contemplation, in simultaneity with the act of uniting the object with the spectator.’ (A quotation from the dOCUMENTA (13) catalogue).
There is also a concern with absence and presence: that what is absent can, through its absence, be very present. And that being physically present does not necessarily signify that a person is emotionally present or available.