My recent work has explored remote natural environments like rainforests and islands. The relationship between a solitary, vulnerable man and unexplored territory fascinates me. I subvert the concept of virgin nature as a comfortable paradise by incorporating strange organic forms and dark spaces into my canvases. The dense foliage becomes a place where bizarre creatures live and thrive. The exploration of a mysterious environment parallels my process of painting as a search for the unknown. The exaggerated color and distorted shapes transform the jungle into a fictional toxic landscape.
I am drawn to landscape that is hostile to visitors. I am interested in a space in which a person is not permitted to enter. The tree lines of the jungle act as a visual barricade. The pockets of dark shadows offer a threatening menace. These jungle series began with my gardening experience couple of years ago. Gardening taught me a sense of mortality; I began to treat nature in a figurative manner.
I spent my childhood and adolescence in various countries. The exposure to numerous cultures and landscapes sparked my interest in international conflicts and contestations of political borders. I operate as a detached observer of clashing ideas and aftermaths. I am more interested in the consequences of contestation and dispute, such as desolated landscape and destroyed architecture. But as with any interpretation of history, a certain amount of fabrication and alteration of the landscape takes place in my work. Through my imagination I manipulate the forbidden landscape.