Sleepwalkers, 2009- 2017, 10 x 10 inches, Oil on linen
Sleepwalkers (2009-2017), a large narrative, spanned a period of 8 years in the making. It further explores the concept of Full Moon Madness — that our limited conditioning puts us to sleep, and we long to awaken to our authentic selves and fulfill our potential. In Sleepwalkers, moonlight illuminates the honeymoon party and the dark, eerie landscape. The characters are ever‑fearful of zombification and the loss of their deluded selves. They are conditioned to survive. Literary inspirations for Sleepwalkers are Charlotte BrontÑ‘’s bleak Gothic novel Jane Eyre, Jean Rhys’s haunting supernatural prequel Wide Sargasso Sea, and the Jamaican writer Michelle Cliff. My use of paint itself is sculptural in quality and symbolizes the unrelenting build-up of the psychological and emotional weight of the past and its burdened descendants. Moonlight only fleetingly illuminates the darkness of this permanent night.
- Roberta Stoddart