At Our Peak • Oil On Canvas • 120 x 185cm
"At Our Peak” is a painting of rocks piled in an empty field, with a fence line that disappears into the distance. The air is smoky from fires. The rocks are angular and difficult. I have depicted a deliberately precarious pyramid that could topple at any moment. This is one of many of my paintings that include rocks. Rock was there from the beginning, it is unyielding and difficult to move, and we have used it for thousands of years to contain animals and people, and to provide shelter from the elements.
There is also another fence, and this one marches determinedly off in a straight line in a seemingly futile attempt to divide up the space.We see the rocks from a low viewpoint to give a sense of monumentality and dominance. Civilisation is at a point where we need to reassess and a top down (pyramidal) approach is no longer working. There is a suggestion of futility in the sense that this pile of rocks serves no real purpose, and yet a lot of energy was required to make it. There is also a reference to the stone cairns that are
all over our country. When people walk past they add a stone until the pile grows too top heavy and the pyramid collapses. This is an analogy of our society today. Our greed and dominance have caused us to build monuments to things that are not sustainable or appropriate. The fires are burning in the background to add to the feeling of reaching the end of a process.