Acorns on the Tideline
In her new collection of work for us, Anna gives us a lesson in the essential strangeness and ambiguity of the world.
At the end of each day she wipes her brushes and knives clean on pages torn from old directories. She saves these scraps. They may become the germ for the next work.
These smears of colour, random fragments of names and information.
Slowly, carefully, Anna builds a world. Using basic shapes, smooth lines and blocks of colour, simplified but recognizable domestic settings and internal landscapes are invoked. Here, individuals, often in solitude, contemplate their predicament. They often appear to be masked or skinned, all knuckle and bone. But as we look they become more human. We search for the familiar. We make connections. We recognize the signs of emotion and life.
It is unclear whether these people are deliberately presenting us with an acceptable version of themselves, or whether they are unaware, dwelling in a private place of patient contemplation.
With economy and simplicity, Anna hints at how we construct ourselves and assert our reality. Trying always to make sense, and find meaning where there may be none.
We long for meaning and connection. And yet all remains strange and unknowable. Liminal and ambiguous.
Anna was born in North Wales. She recently returned to live in Bangor after many years living and working in Nottingham. Her work is widely collected and she was recently featured in Cymry ar Gynfas on S4C.