ARTIST STATEMENT:
SUSAN WHYNE

In this series of paintings, which are set in a constructed fiction of London along the Thames, I use British Victorian era ornamental objects and architecture in addition to contemporary structures to stage the scene. The 19th century Victorian elements have ambiguous imperial, mock self-importance, and militaristic yet decorative qualities that lend an allegoric tone of tension between good and evil, power and innocence. I began the series just before the destruction of the World Trade Towers while I was in London for a trip to get ideas for a new body of work. The city’s omnipresent elaborate, dramatic wrought-iron gates from an earlier time in history, which seem to protect the home and Empire from invasion, contrast with London’s love of more “upbeat” modern architecture and design – perfect analogies of simultaneous gloom and joy, folly and mourning. The many bridges crossing the river became the “span” for the “beginning” and the “end”. With the real experience of catastrophe that further increased our awareness of fear on September 11th, as well as intervening wars and natural devastations, I directed my images to address fragility, fear, and transition.