Highway
1999- 2001
Woodcut print
6ft x 4 ft
ENQUIRE
In the studio at the same time were two prints I had been working on that were exploring the opposites and tensions that I was struggling to reconcile. One of these prints was called ‘Highway ‘ and the other was called ‘Fertile Island’.
‘Highway’ was born from the feeling of futility I got from watching the news every night. I struggled to internalise or know what to do as an artist with the state of the world that we’re living in so every night I decided I would draw onto a big piece of wood something that was going on in the world which at the time was dominated by the war in Bosnia. This formed the backdrop for the print the Highway which also had its origins in a verse in the biblical book of Isaiah that described a symbolic highway passing through the desert-( Isaiah 35 v 8) . The desert I imagined as a world lived without acknowledgement of God and for inspiration, I looked no further than the news every night as wars and rumours of wars abounded. The apocalyptic imagery in the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch and Peter Bruegel were in my mind as was the imagery in the book ‘The Pilgrims Progress’ by John Bunyan. The Pilgrim’s Progress is one of the greatest visionary books ever written and all the more so because it was born from the inside of a prison cell. Pilgrim goes on it journey that takes him through heaven and hell on many roads with twists and crossroads meeting many memorable characters along the way. The pilgrims on this Highway pass through a spiritual wilderness where the very existence of God is being challenged and humanity is inflicting physical carnage and spiritual bondage upon itself. The blindfolded slave masters cannot see, and persecution and oppression is brutal and relentless.
‘Highway’ was born from the feeling of futility I got from watching the news every night. I struggled to internalise or know what to do as an artist with the state of the world that we’re living in so every night I decided I would draw onto a big piece of wood something that was going on in the world which at the time was dominated by the war in Bosnia. This formed the backdrop for the print the Highway which also had its origins in a verse in the biblical book of Isaiah that described a symbolic highway passing through the desert-( Isaiah 35 v 8) . The desert I imagined as a world lived without acknowledgement of God and for inspiration, I looked no further than the news every night as wars and rumours of wars abounded. The apocalyptic imagery in the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch and Peter Bruegel were in my mind as was the imagery in the book ‘The Pilgrims Progress’ by John Bunyan. The Pilgrim’s Progress is one of the greatest visionary books ever written and all the more so because it was born from the inside of a prison cell. Pilgrim goes on it journey that takes him through heaven and hell on many roads with twists and crossroads meeting many memorable characters along the way. The pilgrims on this Highway pass through a spiritual wilderness where the very existence of God is being challenged and humanity is inflicting physical carnage and spiritual bondage upon itself. The blindfolded slave masters cannot see, and persecution and oppression is brutal and relentless.