The Mixed Media series "Antilife Manics" reflects on the effect of the contemporary world, specifically the rational achieving society, on the vulnerable individual. Melancholy and "Weltschmerz" are combined with Pop Art to look at the individual in contemporary society. The guiding theme for this body of work is the juxtaposition of the emotional with the rational world.
Particular attention went into the backgrounds: The Financial Times - a pillar of business, economy and consumerism presented on light salmon pink paper - injects content and colour into the work. The newspaper’s words and numbers represent the rational, the world of order, the system we inhabit. The series is called "Antilife Manics", an anagram formed from the letters of "Financial Times".
Recurring elements in the work are 'pop dots', dripping or running paint and transparency. They are applied to both the mixed media collages and paintings. In the paintings, I focussed on the gestus melancholicus, the head in hand gesture. The collages developed a life of their own; drawing from Dada and Barbara Kruger, the use of text to convey meaning became vital. They tell stories of anxiety, mental turmoil and suffering and can be understood as a comment on today’s pressures in society. As a whole this body of work represents Weltschmerz, the realisation one’s own weaknesses are caused by the inappropriateness of the world.