Concerned with the dualities and conundrums of contemporary society, I use drawing as a tool in which to order and present my observations. Born in Kenya, brought up in the Middle East, and educated in the UK, I have experienced the very transient nature of our global world. Shifting patterns of migration ensure that personal identities have become complex and splintered by contemporary life, and placed in a state of constant redefinition. The result is contradictory; it creates a sense of both immense freedom and overwhelming flux. It is this subtle contradiction, this middle point, which I seek to explore within my work.

Victor is part of an ongoing series of large pencil drawn allegorical portraits concerned with the significance and gravity of the moment in a person's life, and, at the same time, the philosophical evanescence of the very nature of this gravity. Starting with traditional sittings with the subject, my drawing process consists of a methodical gathering of information by means of preparatory observational sketches, photographic studies, conversations, imagination, and research into the iconography of images. In Victor, the drawing is heavily informed by the conversations I had with him while he sat for me in the initial stage of the process. We spoke of his upbringing in a Brazilian orthodox Jewish community from which, on account of his sexuality, he has subsequently fled to find his life in London. In schism between tradition and the contemporary rights of the individual, Victor's world, and thereby his place within it, is constantly vacillating. It seems, therefore, an archetypal story of contemporary man.

The process leading up to completion is slow, with each drawing taking roughly six months to complete. The pliability of graphite means that one can be at once graphic and visceral, illustrational and raw. Lines can be delicate, or smudged and sculpted so that the paper, in microscopic 3-dimensional relief, can inform how to manipulate the tool - the pencil - in order to tell the story. The use of graphite pencil, a medium which is easily erased, means that, at any moment, the motif can disappear through erasure, and change direction through redrawing. This destabilises notions of permanence in the finished drawings and in-so-doing, raises philosophical questions as to the sobriety of the content.

Each drawing in this series is life size, with each subject placed in the centre, in an almost ecclesiastic pose. This compositioning posits a mirroring between subject and viewer, inviting empathy and enabling the viewer to possibly face his or her own image. In exploring the microcosm of the individual, one is actually speaking of the conundrums inherent in us all.

born: 1982, Nairobi, Kenya

education

Central St Martins School of Art, PDip Character Animation, 2009
Slade School of Art, BA Fine Art, 2005
Central St Martins School of Art, Foundation Diploma, 2000

selected publications

Bahrainona: Drawing from Life, Manama, Bahrain, ISBN 99901-10-26-3

selected solo or two-person exhibits

Al Riwaq Gallery, REPRESENT, Adliya, Bahrain, 2007
Bahrain National Museum, Bahrainona, Muharraq, Bahrain, 2007

selected group shows

Emerging Artists Art, Bonhams Bond St, London, UK, 2005
Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of the Arts, London, UK, 2005
TEN, Adhoc Gallery, London, UK, 2004
Paint! London, Candid Arts Trust, London, UK, 2004