Exhibition Statement

Milk & Oil is a collection of figurative sculpture that addresses the human condition through the lens of childhood. A presentation of contemporary issues using images of children and toys, it highlights the childish behaviour of the adult world and speculates about the long term effects of our enterprises, particularly among these most vulnerable members of our society and on the future of our species. Focusing primarily on war, nationalism, consumerism, propaganda and the food industry, it considers key players involved and motivating mechanisms of money and power in a markedly facetious tone.

This exhibition is, for me, a declaration of precisely what repels me about contemporary culture, in which I see the same theatrics that I observed in childhood, magnified with guns, money and power. Despite my admitted disinterest in politics and current affairs, my curiosity of human behaviour compels me to observe the spectacle and respond. There is a grotesque overtone to the show underlining the insidiousness that I think this choice of behaviour heralds in adults. Unlike with children, there exists the capacity to understand the ramifications of their actions, which are potentially devastating on a global political scale.