The Incoming Tide – Masks

Masks have been on my mind. I poured the painting to the left -The Incoming Tide – some time ago and decided to pick it up again. Sometimes images jump out at me from the poured paint but on this one there was nothing obvious. When I started work on it I was listening to a podcast by the Jealous Curator with sculptor and jewellery designer Debra Baxter. I turned back to the painting and there it was, as clear as day, a mask, less than 10 seconds later Debra Baxter talked about her wish to create a stone mask, my jaw dropped. Debra had been talking about the kind of mask we are all wearing now to stop the spread of Covid19 but I have been thinking about their relevance right now.

Masks are being worn to prevent the spread of disease and at the same time masks are falling away. We are openly talking about racism and our complicity. The mask of politeness, not wishing to offend our opinionated relatives or clients, and the mask of silence is being removed. Seeing the mask in the painting in its watery setting also made me think of Edward Colston the Bristol Slave Trader whose statue was tossed into the water and how it had been swept there by a tide of anger at the continuation of the kind of injustice his ‘benevolence’ was built on. I know this is just the beginning but I feel excited about the possibilities for all the empty plinths that are left behind.  This is a unique moment for cities and towns to build something together in equality, art that is relevant to this and future generations.