Copyright 2024
Website sponsored by
THE ROBES OF THE VIRGIN MARY
2023
The Robes of The Virgin Mary are a series of eleven works on paper. They are small monochrome paintings, painted in a one-to-one shape of a smartphone.
All but one is painted with synthetically made ultramarine blue in different mediums of water colour, gouache, oil pastel, soft pastel, oil paint, oil stick, ink and acrylics.
Only one of the paintings is painted with a paint made from the original pigment of ultramarine blue. A pigment derived from the mineral lapis lazuli, which were mined in the hills of Afghanistan and gave name to the colour that came to Europe from beyond the sea - ultra marine.
Historically bright blues have been difficult colours to produce for paints. The colour ultramarine blue was more expensive than gold and was therefore reserved to be used for painting the robes of the virgin Mary, to signify the value of the divine.
Today the colour ultramarine blue is produced synthetically and the hue varies from brand to brand and medium to medium, as can be seen in the paintings.
The work explores this relationship between religion and technology. What was once an expensive and rare colour have, with the advance of technology, become easily and cheaply available for everyone to use, although the brilliance of the hue may have suffered and changed.
Technology has also advanced our understanding of our world. When we once turned to religion for explanations and comfort we now turn to technology. The smartphone can be seen as an image of this, and the way we now use and interact with our phones seem to mirror how we once interacted with religion.