Capitaine Can-Can

‘Capitane Can-Can’ consists of 14 large-scale paintings and installation, part of the exhibition 'Variety' curated by Ian Breakwell and Celia Davies, and commissioned by De La Warr Pavilion as part of their inaugural exhibition and launch of their newly renovated building and gallery space. The ambition of this project was to map out, identify and theoretically analyse various concerns arising from my own practice as ‘artist’. Particularly investigating the female performer and the spectacle, I sought to address questions of femininity, subjectivity and performativity in relation to the process of painting itself. A key question was whether and how the individual is located within the spectacle, and how this is manifest or made evident in material terms. As research I visited many burlesque performances (including the Moulin Rouge in Paris, and many in Las Vegas). Through my process of painting, I explored how performance through an experience of light, surface, colour and movement, its inward and outward spectacle, can be translated to the act / process of painting, whilst simultaneously acknowledging the viewers gaze / desire to participate. Part of the dialogue of the Burlesque satirises the ‘serious subject’, and thrives on the awkward, almost vulnerable act. I drew from the Burlesque performance and the individual creative act. Key references were:‘A Lover’s Discourse’ by Roland Barthes; ‘The Phenomenology of Perception’ by Maurice Merleau Ponty; and ‘Colette’ by Julia Kristeva. Using reflective material in the context of the paint itself, and natural light, the works surface addressed the reflective space. Archival material, costume, architecture, publicity material shrouding the burlesque performances, all became references within my works. The large scale of the whole installation was critical in establishing a physical relationship to viewer.