The piece “thoughts and prayers” symbolises conflict, disaster and loss of life through natural and man-made occurrences. It challenges beliefs, notions of right and wrong, and winners and losers.
It resembles the aftermath of disaster, picking up the pieces, making sense of conflict and misfortune. It attempts to humanize and give focus to the stream of images and stories from across the globe, which numb our senses on a daily basis. It symbolizes the coming together of people from all walks of life, all ages, backgrounds, religions and beliefs; it is about the human spirit overcoming adversity.
The idea to use a prayer mat motif was not originally of any overtly religious significance. After the blue and white pieces of my previous “shattered thoughts” work I was looking for a new set of patterns to act as a central theme. As with the previous body, the new work does not replicate specific patterns and motifs, but instead alludes to and approximates a more generalized sense of our memory of these patterns. The prayer mat design was chosen to make the work less symmetrical and also because it has a direct reference to human scale.
Once the prayer mat form had been decided on it was obvious that a religious interpretation of the piece was always going to be made, especially in light of current world events. It was important to open up a broader reading of the piece, which prompted the introduction of a variety of additional objects placed on top of the rug. I have used sticks and crumpled paper in my work for many years and both have a wide range of meanings and interpretations. From the simple children’s rhyme of “sticks and stones will break my bones but words shall never hurt me”, to the historic references to the tree of life, the sticks in the piece elude to nature and all things natural.
The formal quality of the sticks gives the work a sense of movement and rhythm, they move the viewer’s gaze around the work and help to link the other objects together. The addition of the blue and white painted element to the sticks demonstrates how a plain exterior can often reveal a hidden core, made manifest in extreme circumstances.
The aluminium pieces of crumpled paper have collaged Christian texts on them, which act as a balance to the religious significance of the prayer mat. In the wider sense they represent discarded thoughts, memories, ideas, views and beliefs indicating a change in perspective.
In a work that signifies hope and forgiveness, it was important that there were no direct references to war, it would have been quite easy to include guns, knives and bullets but this would limit multiple interpretations of the piece. The closest direct reference are the paper planes, which were originally conceived as representing childhood and children, but also represent the transfer of thoughts and wishes from one person to another.
Further information can be found on the Thoughts and Prayers website
Mark Lomax 