Claustrophobia

CONCEPTUALLY, this is a very old painting – 50 years, from 1975. I was thinking then about solipsism. In a way, the phenomenon traps the mind like a pickle in a bottle, an “achar”, fermenting, transforming within its confined limitations but remaining essentially the same. Claustrophobia mirrors this mental incarceration, in an air-thinning, terrifying isolation. It can be physical or existential. In the modern era, it is more likely to be the latter.

I was at Kent at Canterbury when I first drew this. Imbibed with Picasso's and Dali's images, I used whatever materials that were available to me then: red and black markers on woodfree photocopy paper to create it (a version I thought I had misplaced but have since found). Later, in 1980, I repainted with drawing ink and paint (probably oils!) on cardboard. That version is slightly torn and the paint has cracked. I have had my mind set on repainting it for some time now. Finally completed it on January 16, 2021.

I am very glad and honoured that “Claustrophobia” has, at long last, found its way to an international online exhibition called “No Way Out”: