THE DARK SIDE OF LIGHT
Solo Exhibition by Megan Jones
Thursday 29th August to Sunday 8th September, 2019
Join Megan at The Corner Gallery Stanmore for the opening and drinks on Saturday 31st August, from 3 to 6pm.
ABOUT Megan
I am an Australian artist working in Sydney. My main medium is oil painting, though I also draw and work in mixed media. I came to art after previous careers in education, clinical psychology and management, and this background has influenced my artistic preoccupations. In my art I reflect on life and society, the operation of power, and environmental issues.
My artwork is conceptually based and involves considerable research. Generally, it has a social, psychological or philosophical emphasis. In form it is realistic, but the reality I present is symbolic or metaphorical rather than literal . My hope is to provoke a dialogue with the viewer about issues of contemporary life.
THE DARK SIDE OF LIGHT
Solo Exhibition by Megan Jones
This series deals with the effect of our actions on society and the environment, when we do not take sufficient responsibility for our behaviour. These effects are caused by the shadows which lie within us, and by extension, on the world, as we knowingly try to bargain our way to the ‘good life’.
There has been a failure of first modernism and then post-modernism in contemporary society, which is tending to result in a descent into fundamentalism and superstition in many parts of the world. It has also created an emphasis on ‘now’, and ‘me’ and ‘my comfort’, combined with a deliberate refusal to act to protect ‘us’ and ‘our future’- even from the potentially devastating consequences of climate change.
We have become accustomed to intrusive surveillance, such as with CCTV, and the monitoring of our everyday interactions, through social media. In fact, we collude in our own control, particularly in our embrace of electronic devices. And in our name governments develop new forms of destruction, and increasingly impersonal means of delivering that destruction, such as drones.
By handing our individual responsibility to others we are refusing to acknowledge that we are complicit in the increasing breakdown of social norms of civility, sharing and tolerance. Normalising the demonization of the ‘other’- at individual, societal and national levels- is detrimental to us all. The treatment of refugees is one example of this, as is conflict fomented between nations, though increasing racism and discrimination is perhaps more evident in everyday life.
When political leaders create scandal to avoid scrutiny, and disruption to avoid action based on reason and forethought, when emotion is valued above reason, and immediate satisfaction above prudence, we are living in the shadow of social decline.
Investigating the shadow is an active exploration of the dark side, to find the light; a way to try to understand what life is about; a means to conquer darkness, and then to integrate it with the light.
contact – Megan Jones – 0408 816 772