Adam Hall
Statement
My current paintings and drawings are disjointed narratives evoking the conflicted emotions I feel when involved in a romantic relationship. I strive for an emotional tone in the work that mirrors my own ambivalent feelings towards my memories. As such the works reveal my need to pay homage to the feelings of euphoria with which I began these relationships, as well as the bewilderment, sadness and nostalgia that seem to be an essential part of my memories.
In the composition I try to convey the whirlwind of excitement that new love brings through the implied motion of the figures, the way the background itself seems to move about, the way the architecture seems about to disintegrate, or by the explosion of stars around the figure’s heads.
In these works I combine two types of images, the most obvious being universal romantic symbols from the collective consciousness such as couples kissing, a woman throwing her head back in ecstasy, or a teddy bear. The potentially saccharine quality of these images is deliberately subverted by more ambiguous romantic images from my own memory such as a snail shell, an oil refinery, or a spiral staircase. The combination of these motifs is used to convey the conflicted and convoluted nature of my memories. It gives the paintings a dreamlike atmosphere, which is reinforced by sleeping or introspective figures, by a dark bluish haze, and by an ominous murky palette for some of the secondary images.
Overall, the works express the poignant, bittersweet quality that is universally experienced when recalling even the most joyous events from our past.
-Adam Hall, 2006