‘A Young Man Sees’ is an introspective narrative presented as a series of black and white vignettes. The body of work is characterised by isolated subjects with very little to distract the viewer.
For ‘A Young Man Sees’, I wanted to create a considered series containing symbols and artifacts; stripped back subjects with open ended narratives. I wanted to invite the viewer to ask questions (to themselves) and wonder over the meaning of each subject. Each of the subjects has meaning to me but I felt that it was important not to share that meaning with the viewer right away - to not affect their journey. As an example: the treasure chest is a personal artifact from my childhood; I know it’s history and what was encased inside of it. Not sharing this information allows the chest to contain anything (from the perspective of the viewer).
Sometimes I formed ideas for the pieces over days of contemplation, other times they were instantaneous or stumbled upon. The images were created from these visual ideas first and then I explored what their meaning to myself was (if I had formed them subconsciously then they must mean something to me, right?). The pieces are an exercise in finding meaning in images - both before and after they are created. They can be considered as either isolated incidents or as part of an overarching story. I encourage viewers to discover their own narratives and meanings for each of the pieces and decide what the series as a whole means to them.
