WHITNEY-JADE HALSTED

My work is engaged with the deconstruction of hierarchy following that of the ideals rooted in colonialism. Although the practise is rooted in colonialism it is not about colonialism itself and rather is an investigation of the exploitation and the social discourse it creates.What determines how something or someone gains more importance than someone or something else and the irrational and rational ways of experiencing ourselves in relation to nature.

 

Questioning structures of power and influence, laying bare injustices and hypocrisies while maintaining an amused attachment to the myths through which identity – individual and rational – is constructed.The apparent dis-connectivity and connectivity and their human cost are foregrounded in my watercolour and oil paintings in which divisions of hierarchy and animal symbolism are all too familiar. Yet, the non-linear narrative, together with provocative detail, disconcerting shifts of colour and animal figures come together in the hopes of environmental and social awareness.

 

Often the works  create  their own non- linear narrative where animal figures are more speculative rather than a direct reference to current social, political or historical culture, and instead depicts a world in which indications of specific place or time are absent.

 

In Zimbabwe, where I come from, the environment and particularly wildlife has in me left a strong imprint and has become the basis for the non-linear narrative I use in my work. From the remote African landscape and especially wildlife with in an African context, in these paintings the contemporary painterly language is employed to signal shifting sentiments of former glories, made all the more melancholic when they appear etched in mainstream culture.