Messages Series

The "Messages" series, on one level, reflects the chaotic, omnipresent nature of communications in today's society. Unless we live in rural areas, we are trapped as unwitting (and sometimes unwilling) recipients of a flurry of messages, all competing for our attention. Messages come from the media, from advertisers, from retail operations, from charities; they are flown out the backs of planes, delivered by mail, hoisted on billboards, e-mailed in bulk and handed to us on street comers. These messages attempt to control how we respond by making demands: to buy, to order, to sign, to join.

The "Messages" series represents one form of coping with the communications invasion of the 21 st century: that is, the urge to deconstruct the messages received and respond in an unlikely way. These paintings use mixed media and collage, fragments of expression (foreign newspapers, passport stamps, text), de-constructed and reconstructed to eviscerate these "messages" of their original meanings and make new ones. They are, first and foremost, an emotional reaction to my surroundings as a:painter. But, in struggling toreconcile form, shape and colour, they are also my attempts to respond in a deeper, more critical way to the contemporary environment.

Toby Graser

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