| My work is a personal, passionate response to the human condition; it explores fantasies, feminism, sexuality and gender, notions of desire; both sexual and cerebral—life in all of its turbulence, tears, confusion and sometimes even playfulness. It is a response to thoughts, both in memory and on an everyday basis, improvised through the drawn image and text. Like a series of stories—intense, emotional, private, revealing—they document a modern tale of a sexualised society that appears totally seduced on the surface but betrays a lack of human touch and human love. |  |
Sue Williams
My work is a personal, passionate response to the human condition; it explores fantasies, feminism, sexuality and gender, notions of desire; both sexual and cerebral—life in all of its turbulence, tears, confusion and sometimes even playfulness.
It is a response to thoughts, both in memory and on an everyday basis, improvised through the drawn image and text. Like a series of stories—intense, emotional, private, revealing—they document a modern tale of a sexualised society that appears totally seduced on the surface but betrays a lack of human touch and human love.
The “Through Glass” series explores 21st century relationships, in which we are increasingly reliant on forming and conducting our relationships via 21st century technology. I feel that modern technology, which includes the television, computer screen and mobile phone, has seduced us into believing that we are communicating sophisticatedly. However, despite the technological advancement, communication between the sexes remains fundamentally flawed. New misunderstandings occur as we declare, deny, argue and arrange our relationships “through glass.” Sadly, this often leads to cowardly behaviour, isolation and frustration as we unpick the words and send our mixed messages into cyberspace. The work also alludes to where I believe technology is taking us—to a lonely space that is devoid of human touch and eye-to-eye contact.
My large-scale paintings, illuminated by my trademark colours of vibrant, luscious pinks, reds and mauves are punctuated by graffiti-style words, a device that sidetracks and destabilises the viewer, creating a sense of uncertainty—do you trust the text or the image? Neither necessarily supports the other, but they are an essential component nonetheless, and one that draws the viewer into the provocative, prickly world of sexual politics.
In contrast to my paintings, my drawings are more intimate, raw and full of black humour, leaving very little to the imagination. Women sit unabashedly on the toilet grimacing, men and women have sex in different and sometimes acrobatic positions and images of women and girls surrounded by thoughts or slogans that recall the feminist ideology of the 70s and 80s such as “oh god no more war,” “love me, love my sisters and be beautiful?”—all of which question our concept of female beauty.
