The mystery of Painting is related to the mystery of being in a human body. The energy of the body is the energy that flows through all things; drawing is the study of this energy. The artist is a conduit for chanelling bodily energy into paintings, which enables paintings to have Being. Therefore, the bodily energy of existence is core to the experience of Painting.

The paintings exhibited here are the concluding section of a much larger two year project; earlier sections are as yet unexhibited. χάος μανία δακρύων is the title for this last section of the work; the words are ancient Greek, translating roughly as Chaos Madness Tears. I use the variant spelling δακρύων that Ezra Pound used in his Pisan Cantos. My title refers to a vision of Dionysos manifesting in the studio, not to “meaning” of the paintings themselves.

I am indebted to help and encouragement given to me in the last two years, most of all by Yujue Wang, and also by Greg Smith, Kate Wheale, Katrina Arent, 萧煌 (Shawn) and Madeleine Love. I am also indebted to Río Rosanó who worked as my studio assistant at various times in the last two years and whose help with the project was seminal.