Gerard Hanson  |   Biography  | Info  

2010
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Statement

The ideas behind my work are rooted in the movement of people. My intention is to explore and expose ideas of displacement, assimilation and exclusion, wrapped up in duality of existence and identity. The work investigates and represents current generations who move back and forth from Jamaica. The representation of these journeys, people and places is of historic and contemporary importance, something that I aim to bring to the surface in my work.

Multiculturalism has brought us to a new juncture. Current generations of young people are now more aware than ever of the mix of nationality, race and culture surrounding them. Adults alike are seeking new ways of making sense of these complicated issues, feeling ‘out of place’; and at the same time bridging the overlap of cultural, racial and physical spaces we inhabit and exist within.

Exploring these issues reveals many different signposts representing the past, present and future. Exposed is a generation searching for missing pieces of their cultural jigsaw, simultaneously finding acceptance and solace contrasted with rejection and torment. The many mixed influences and resulting otherness which are derived from the movement of people from one continent to another is a true reflection of the horrors of its origin; the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. Such experiences are succinctly encapsulated in the offspring of mixed marriages who feel ‘out of place’ both ‘here and there’.

The work is constructed of well-established forms of image making. Merging photography and painting on canvas I aim to represent this subject in a language that creates a sense of visual confusion, as one is not quite sure where the boundaries lie. This mirrors many of the subtopics that lie within modern day global cultures, In turn providing a gateway to future ethnologies.


 

 



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