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EXISTENTIALISM
Project Type
Painting
Date
2009. Sold in 2020 at the Chelsea Arts Club, London.
Existence Precedes Essence; The Other; Facticity (2009) is a large triptych of
paintings in acrylic, consisting of two illuminated figures interacting with a dark
space. Each painting is 5x7ft. The work takes its inspiration from Jean-Paul Sartre’s existentialist philosophy, an atheistic theory according to which there is no meaningful being outside this world. An implication of this is human beings’ complete freedom over defining ourselves and our choices, as there is no God to determine our path or design. We must therefore take our own meaning from this meaningless world, make our own choices and define our own essence; as “existence precedes essence.” I took key elements of this philosophy and attempted to visualise them in figuration. Referencing artists such as Caravaggio and Francis Bacon, the work depicts an intense fleeting moment between two figures in an ambiguous relationship, interacting with ‘the void’; responding to and living in an existential world.
The triptych was displayed at Terminal 5 Executive Lounge at Heathrow airport, and sold at the Chelsea Arts Club.
