Rats become Brats / Surface Development.

Surface development concepts.

Its time to develop appropriate surface options for the rats, derived from an investigation into possible titles for the works. I have cast and assembled a variety of animated options for the rats as reflected in the final image posted below. The installation and various groupings (pairs) are now possible, completely visualised and could be realised. However without an integrated, conceptually refined ceramic surface, the actual ceramic sculptures are incomplete. Hence the enclosed images of transfers, their intended symbolic meaning, including the religious and political extremists and fundamentalist symbols, necessary to give shape and meaning to the intended ceramic installation, to be titled, I never promised you a rose garden. For further insight into the concept behind the title - see caption below.


















The title of the work has it's roots within the conflict experienced by the author, Joanne Greenberg, of the book with the above mentioned title. She was bullied as a child which shaped her worldview as recorded in her autobiography. The idea behind the installation and pairs of rats is to encapsulate the complex juxtaposed worldviews plaguing society today (incorporating religious conflict - French ban on religious symbols in schools). Fundamentalists and extremists with their hateful agendas are bulling their way forward; in direct response to the impact of globalisation.

Why transfers of roses you may ask? Their intended meaning {a bed of roses, The war of roses (movie title)} - they are highly complex symbols, ambivalent as both heavenly perfection and earthly passion, the flower is both time and eternity, life and death, fertility and virginity. A symbol of beauty, grace, happiness but also voluptuousness, the passions associated with wine, sensuality and seduction. The Rose garden is a paradise symbol - and is the place of mystic marriage, harmony, the union of opposites - beauty, perfection and chastity. The evanescence of the rose represents death, mortality and sorrow, its thorns signify pain, blood and martyrdom. Although colour plays an important part (symbolism captured in ballpoint pen in the above enclosed images), the emphasis was placed on the rose garden - a spectrum of colour; showcasing the beauty of society's diversity and hence the variety of rose transfers.




































Religious and political symbols - for many they represent images of conflict (enforced morals) and oppression (bullies)
We all strive to live in peace and harmony, a open and free society, tolerant of each other views. However we live in a world plagued by hot wars with no front (Umberto Eco; Turning back the clock 2008) - the enemy lurking within (the enemy is amongst us) and around us. Hence the fact that the above showcased religious and political symbols (printed gold transfers) will be dispersed in a calculated and carefully designed fashion amongst the rose transfers on the body of the animated rats - turning them, on close observation, into fundamentalist and extremist brats (bullies); ready to spread their anger and frustration, reminiscent of the black plague.