Degree Show Statement (2016)

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Raz’s practice considers the dependability of the image, and by extension its ability to articulate reality. His paintings contemplate both the empirical and implicit qualities of an image, object or environment. This results in an oxymoronic surface; one that oscillates between cohesion and chaos.

 

E.g.

Palm trees marry opposing ideals. The provenance of palms means that as an image they project a quasi-utopian idyll in which one rests in the shadows of palms: the plant has become inextricably linked to the notion of paradise. Yet through decades of image appropriation, palms have become domesticated; their implicit values diluted. They have been reduced to an outline and now tread the boundary between the real and the artificial.