Lesley Guy

Artist statement

My practice is experimental and multi-disciplinary, often driven by an interest in contradiction or paradox. I use the appropriation and defacement of found materials to construct scenarios or images that manipulate the 'real' or recognisable.

Fliers and newspapers are a surface of existing forms, which serve as starting points for semi-abstract ramblings. These are doodles, not made out of boredom, but in response to the absurdity and the quantity (and quality) of information we constantly have to deal with. By defacing this kind of material I’m attempting to express these frustrations in a humorous way as well as transform it into something new albeit equally meaningless. This could be seen as appropriating images as a new space for reverie or fantasy, or as challenging the authority of imagery in order to reveal the hidden sacred within the profane.

The projects are compulsive but the strategy has evolved into exploring the surface of the images; within the process is a struggle between contingency and control. Here I use drawing or painting as a tool for thinking and exploring; I enjoy solving the problems of surface, picture plane, illusion and form. The appropriated imagery acts as a boundary within which to play, it sets the rules.