All images courtesy the artist and That Art Gallery
The inner workings of the human mind is not always discernible upon the human face. Artist David Shillinglaw tries to navigate this conundrum with his multifaceted collage works. Shillinglaw works with how the left side of the brain explores the right side, weaving how the human mind reasons pragmatically and emotionally with each collaged face.Art-making for Shillinglaw is a means to "speak and celebrate aspects of the human condition which are difficult to describe and define… vulnerability, insecurity, and anxiety."
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In a new show titled Tales of Ordinary Madness at That Art Gallery in Bristol, UK, Shillinglaw splices and pieces elements of the human face with bright shocks of color and disconcerting proportions. The "Frankensteining" effect helps the artist communicate his concepts of heated passions and instabilities that are brewing behind physical looks.Shillinglaw reconciles what he considers a world for out-of-reach perfection with the true internal mechanisms common to every human mind. He says, "For me, art is a language for things I cannot talk about. In a world so obsessed with perfection, strength, and beauty, I feel that art has power. […] It is my aim to draw attention to the fact that 'It is OK to not to be OK.'"
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