“We are waves of the same sea, leaves of the same tree, flowers of the same garden.” It’s a powerful phrase, one that came to the fore during the initial outbreak of Covid-19 when it was written on boxes of face masks delivered to Italy by the Chinese company Xiaomi. These were sent as a “token of gratitude to the Italian people” from the Chinese company for making their staff feel so welcome when they opened their offices there in 2018.
The phrase is attributed to the Roman Stoic philosopher Seneca, though this is sometimes disputed. Anyway, regardless of who said it, these words strike a chord. Not just in the isolated context of the pandemic, but ongoing, in increasingly tumultuous times when divisions between race, religion, gender and wealth are being exploited and polarised.
My initial intention was to use this phrase to create a typographic print. Around the same time, I was starting to experiment with abstract shapes and geometric patterns – colliding and overlapping, sometimes in harmony, sometimes clashing. I can’t recall the exact moment, but at some point the penny dropped and the ‘Waves’ series of prints was born.
Working with a set of silkscreens and three variations of wave pattern, the process is analogue and incorporates experimentation and happenstance; using accident more than design, making decisions on the fly in response to what’s happening on the paper.
This results in bold, colourful, one-off prints that contain a harnessed energy. Yes, there’s conceptual thinking, spontaneity and self-imposed rules behind the work, but ultimately they create an overarching feeling of positivity and joy. And that – as the song almost goes – is worth a million in prizes.
