In the 21st century, everything is mass produced. Everything is consumable and expendable. Nothing is permanent. From inescapable public advertising to targeted internet marketing, we are constantly being bombarded with visual information and the search for originality, in thought and experience is highly endangered.
Within these dire circumstances Ellise Bourne’s work stands to remind people what makes us human. Our shared experience and original thoughts are ours alone to possess, and protect. Bourne states:
“Your experience is not the only experience. There is a disparity between our subconscious experiences and the lives we apparently feel obliged to live. It is a great strain to resist the modern trappings of mass consumerism and individualism. The tension that exists between my internal sight and my external sight is my art practice. Art is a cathartic purge. The act of creating and perceiving art is an opportunity to (if only temporarily) alter the mind and transcend the disparity. Mind alteration inspires endless contemplation. I hope people will see art and nature and be provoked to stop and think. These images are an attempt to make peace between the disparate experiences of the subconscious and of reality.”
As a print maker, Bournes work processes an irony as she chooses to comment on originality through an artistic medium known for its reproducibility. However the craft of printmaking is almost as endemic as original thought in the contemporary world. Surpassed by digital printers and further still by the even more intangible electronic visual graphics, Bourne’s prints possess an authenticity that is hard to come by in the modern age.
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