‘Primaries’, 2021.  352cm x 130.5cm x 2cm.  Oil, acrylic, wax and cloth on canvas 

‘Primaries-Blue’, 2021, 100cm x 100cm x 2cm.  Oil, acrylic, wax and graphite on canvas. 

’Primaries-Yellow’, 2021, 78.5cm x 78.5cm x 2cm.  Oil and acrylic on canvas. 

’Primaries-Red’, 2021, 130.5cm x 95cm x 2cm.  Oil, acrylic and cloth on canvas. 

‘Primaries’ is a series aimed to question the metamorphosis of the Greek God Aphrodite:  Her evolution from Goddess of passion, procreation and pleasure through Ishtar, Aphroditus, Venus and into more leathery and less sexually promiscuous Virgin Mary.  The weight of the generations of belief in all of these guises and the polarising of her identity gives a nod to 2020 US Primaries (and modern-day elections in general) in light of social Media and the echo chambers created within.  Each of the three colours therefore also relate to their left, middle or right leaning political party.   

As Blue represents the left (Joe Biden) the canvas documents the more liberal attributes of Aphrodite:  From the hermaphrodite deity Aphroditus (overshadowed by the Venus razor), to diminutive Venus of Willendorf who encompasses a toffee apple (the latter used as an offering by cult followers of the deity) all floating on a sea of waves (and nod to Sandro Botticelli’s, 1486 ‘Birth of Venus’). 

Yellow represents the middling attributes of Aphrodite:  From the quince featured in background impasto (many believe that the golden apple given to her by Paris was a quince and the Ancient Greeks therefore associated fertility with the fruit and gave it as gifts to Aphrodite) through the ladder of the middle ground (ladder was termed ‘Klimax’ in Greek and so ever synonymous with the deity/legs/sex) to the foreground ‘Hello Boys’ (made famous by the 1994 Wonder Bra campaign whose bill boards caused copious car crashes when placed at intersections due to the models seismic breasts and coy expression). 

Red represents Donald Trump and as such the beautiful imagery combines to teeter on the grotesque:  From the eye pomegranate (sacred to Aphrodite who was said to have first planted it on the island of Kypros) featured left and impasto heart eye right (reminiscent of ‘like’ button social Media function), through the wave (and nod to Sandro Botticelli’s, 1486 ‘Birth of Venus’) that they rest on-to the mouth (female smiles and laughter synonymous with sex and the deity in 700BC).