On Stage from Birth
oil on board
61.5cmm x 44cm
Jason Lilley
This painting has a multiple layered narrative. On the single plain this layering creates an intentional symbiotic abstracted relationship, an assimilation. The theme is one of birth, the wearing of multiple masks throughout life and then finally to earth. Part of the painting’s narrative (2 x landscape views) is viewed at 90° anti-clockwise and clockwise.
Fig.1 shows the portrait with fig.2 showing one of the interlaced masks. Fig.3 introduces a depiction of the mother with child, the head doubles up (by rotating the painting 90° anti-clockwise) as an apple, a reference to Eden and the expulsion. Fig.4 is the interlinked landscape with fields, rocks and coast (90°). The assimilation of component narratives is important to the overall single narrative: it is a story of a life, each stage imbued with equal importance.
Fig.1
Fig.2
Fig.3
