:: 2008 :: 50cm x 50cm :: Acrylics, Gouache, Inks and Markers on Canvas ::
When I was a child, I used to suffer strong and visionary migraines in which flickering lines, haloes and shards of light predominated. Later in life, when I became an artist these became a major source of inspiration for my work. However, when I chanced upon a book of 20,000 year old rock art from the Kalahari Desert, I realised I intimately knew the imagery that these people were depicting on the rock, consisting as it did of the same flickering haloes. I suddenly became filled with the notion of the unity of mankind on seeing these art works: if I as a modern northern European could experience the same visual effects as an ancient southern African, then something inside us both was identical across that vast span of time. This work depicts that deep organic unity, shared by myself on the right and the ancient African artist on the left. In the centre between us are the flickering haloes which connect us: we are sharing a vision across 20,000 years.
