sean fairman

From the ashes of my earliest creations arose a series of works that would carry me through 25 years of painting; exploring ritual , sacrifice , custom and tradition through materials that have become sacred in the act painting. From Letraset immersed in tar to flirtatious poems in cuneiform inscribed in clay, or Dante’s love-notes trodden in Tuscan volcanic soils; love, lust, faith and law are all issues embedded in and under the surfaces of my work - forever obscured by ritual processes - still maintaining the balance of beauty and catastrophe is the realm where my work functions.

fete de l'obscurite:

From process to procession; the same materials, the same process, the same belligerence the same care.

Contradictions run amok - as do our faiths, laws, lust and loves. Somewhere we pay a price for them all.

No matter what we celebrate there is a victim dishonoured or a truth unclear. Joyful in the denunciation of fear, we celebrate death through parades and costume. Acting out our demise is an acceptance of life itself. Celebrate life, celebrate death, celebrate the existence between. This parade of characters has emerged from years of painting and hiding their existence. In the start of these new works, I hope to explore the acceptance of each sin, each character, and for them to own their punishment in the same way we accept and celebrate death itself.