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OVENDEN CONTEMPORARY

Atelier EAST is pleased to present an exhibition of abstract paintings by:

Craig Kerrecoe

at Angles Theatre, Alexandra Road, Wisbech, Cambridgeshire PE13 1HQ

5th August to 1st September 2007

***PREVIEW RECEPTION ON 5TH AUGUST 2007***

The work of Craig Kerrecoe is concerned with the essence of identity, or ‘free-will’ verses pre-destination. He uses DNA as the subject to investigate these issues, opening up a dialogue concerning the question of whether we are in control of our own destiny, or merely pre-disposed to live out our lives according to our genetic heritage or programming.

Using abstraction as a way of studying and understanding his actions, reactions and interactions with those around him, he pursues a relatively simple ‘flesh against machine’ metaphor, using nothing more than wallpaper scrapers. He scrapes paint onto each canvas, layer after layer, as if removing these layers from his own ‘self’, then scrapes the paint off again in the hope that this removal process will somehow ‘reveal’ the true identity that lies beneath. Whether this true identity is genetically composed or spiritually based is probably less important than the expectation that, once free, it will be unencumbered by the weight of a lifetime of experience and assumption.

Kerrecoe’s work originates from a distinctly personal perspective, about how his genetic heritage has, or may have, direct implications on his own life and that of his children. He wishes to break free of the psychological or spiritual failings of past generations by determining the level of control he has over his psyche, then exploiting that control in order to eliminate those failings.

Fresh from the collaborative exhibition, 'A Series Of Lines' at Three Cups Gallery in Ely, with Esther Appleyard, Kerrecoe brings a selection of paintings from the on-going 'Code' series to Angles Theatre, one of Britain's smallest professional Theatres and a treasure of the Fens.

Are we slaves to the code? Are we little more than machines, programmed to function in an extremely specific way? Is identity just an elaborate illusion, the result of billions of chemical reactions? Can science explain all, or is there a greater unexplainable spiritual element to our existence that cannot be defined or pre-destined?