"For many years I have been curious about individuality.. Exploring the ideas, experiences and conditions that construct my ‘identity’. I wonder if artists possess a more acute sense of self-awareness. As I have discovered during the creation of Interrain, such a theme can be both expansive and daunting.

Recently, I embraced the medium of fresco painting as a means to establish a dialogue with my religious upbringing. Fresco painting has a rich history in western religious art and visual culture. However, I have deviated from traditional methods of fresco painting, instead focusing on the intersection between different mediums and emotions. My fresco painting focuses on the use of mixed media, particularly on the combination of painting, plaster and gypsum, in an attempt to connect modern materials with historical techniques. Here, I have developed an adaptive style that bridges the past with the present. This has allowed me to engage with religion in my own way.

 

The use of plaster is perhaps the most drastic reinterpretation of fresco painting within this body of work. Deviating from traditional techniques that favour a smooth and even surface, I used plaster to create dramatic undulations that transformed the work from two-dimensional to three-dimensional. Here, depth, texture and movement replace the didacticism of traditional theological fresco painting. Combined with painting techniques that emphasise volume and stroke, the plaster creates a metaphysical landscape of being that reflects the complexity and vicissitudes of my own experiences.

 

 

OTOMYS: This body of works appears to move away from the representational style of landscape painting you have previously explored, instead depicting a “landscape of being.” What promoted you to take a more introspective approach to your painting? 

 

Zak Tilley: For this body of work I was motivated to explore a more internal landscape. I no longer had the desire to be the observer of land, spaces and objects that were subject to ownership. I wanted to go where things were free - my thoughts. These paintings are an indexical product of my current emotional situation, charting the terrain of my mind. This journey is evident in the volume of the individual works; some are minimal, whereas others are more layers, documenting a more detailed topography of my mind. Previously my paintings were external, focused on subjects that were completely outside of myself. This body of work was an outlet to reconnect with myself, acting as a means to digest and reflect upon a significant period of transition in my life. 

 

OTOMYS:  This body of work uses a radical experimentation with different materials; plaster, oil sticks and spray paint have been used. Can you explain the reasoning behind this bold experimentation? 

 

Zak Tilley: Materiality is a key component to my shift away from representational landscape painting. I was yearning for something new. I first began to explore three-dimensionality on the canvas with some of my earlier landscape painting, applying thick, impasto strokes of paint. However, working with plaster on masonite allowed me to build form, creating a work that was sculptural and three dimensional. Here, I was shaping a physical landscape of my own creation. It was a challenging shift, but also deeply exciting and rewarding as it allowed me to return to myself. 

 

This body of work focused on texture and tactility, playing less with colour. Working with oil sticks over the textured surface of the plaster called upon primal and basic mark making techniques. Pulling the pigment across the uneven surface of the plaster reminded me of the charcoal rubbings I did as a child. 

 

OTOMYS:  Your connection to classical Frescos is fascinating. However, traditional Italian Frescoes are flat, textureless and often depict highly didactic religious scenes. Your paintings, however, are the complete opposite, embracing a course and dynamic texture with highly abstract mark making. How do you explain your reinterpretation of the fresco? 

 

Zak Tilley: The fresco speaks to my completed relationship to religion. Having grown up with religion, I have retained an interest and curiosity for the iconography, stories and visual culture created by Christianity. Through my art I want to understand and engage with religion, but on my own terms. My subversion of the traditional fresco marks a readiness to connect with religion in an empowered and contemporary way.