Currently on display at Black Rat Projects is ‘Petit Mal’, a new collection of work by London based artist Candice Tripp. ‘Petit Mal’ is a dark and twisted tale of childhood innocence as told through the artist’s fairytale-like style. Each image is rendered in a illustrative fashion and suspended in a world of white negative space (as if torn from a storybook). But that’s where the wholesomeness ends. Though her subjects are childish, distinct adult themes of emotional pain and trauma are explored in Tripp’s latest work that leaves the viewer challenged on thoughts of peer and societal pressures.
“While I was painting, I kept thinking about a small town full of young, isolated inhabitants and how every place, to a degree, has “a way” of doing things, a way which is rarely interrupted until an outsider witnesses and draws attention to it I found myself thinking a lot about an interruption of consciousness – in the sense of it occurring in a group. I tend to paint a fraction of a story- often either prelude or aftermath – and so I ended up focusing on fictitious (often awkward social) scenarios occurring in a town that is unaware of its single-minded lapse in judgement; Cult-like. The idea being that children who don’t outgrow it, will fall victim to it.”
Gallery photos via Ian Cox
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