Boredom and alienation, the symptoms of the capitalist consumerist are weighted alongside themes of invention, re-creation and renewal, humanity and the inhumane, so the images are mediatised, cropped or zoomed-in, portraying only elements of the complete observed landscape which would otherwise come to form the high street or the shopping centre, the office block and the tower block, the throws of 21st Century daily existence.
“Streets are 'lovingly' swept clean each morning, so that they may suffer the horrors played out each night before. There can be no true beauty in this, only beauty within the decay.”
These visceral surfaces are at once apocalyptic and rejuvenated. Areas of marked intensity are nurtured and supported by areas of flat colour blurring the foreground with the background while matt and gloss fight for domination of the final surface finish. At times paint is scraped from the canvas surface as if to purge a memory or sanded flat in a hasty cover up to re-address the balance. Francis states “Streets are 'lovingly' swept clean each morning, so that they may suffer the horrors played out each night before. There can be no true beauty in this, only beauty within the decay.” He offers no comfort to the viewer, only a confrontation with facts stripped of emotional propaganda.
'Untitled 16' was selected as the winner of the inaugural Needhams Open Art Competition 2009, for new and emerging international Artists and we are pleased to announce the forthcoming solo exhibition 'The Ultimate Crumbling' at Needhams from 26th June to 30th July 2009.
