Traces

Durham Art Gallery

Oil on paper. 100 pieces each 46x46 cm. 1998.

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Traces is a set of one hundred handprints of ordinary men, women and right across the social spectrum.

"The genesis of the work lies with those stencilled hands deep in the recesses of dark caves made at the very beginning of our attempts to understand and reconstruct the conscious world. The handprint is a primary source and the unique trace of another human being. Those early hands could, conceivably, have contained the genetic blueprint for any one of us.

In referring to those hands I hope the work points to our biological history, our common ancestry and the similitude of Mankind. It has also to do with man’s search for meaning and leaving his own unique place within the world."

Accompanying catalogue. Critical comment.