Before you begin to read my artist statement, please take a moment to appreciate the work, and attempt to imagine what is behind each block of colour.
My concept for this piece was based around memory and what we choose to remember and therefore, what we choose to forget about the world around us. I decided to use bright, pure colour blocks to censor out the things we choose to forget, to draw attention to them. The first image in the sequence (Green Rectangle), is censoring out a man handing out fliers near Dundas Square. While this is a regular occurrence in this area, most people would be lost when asked to recall what the man was handing out, what he was attempting to market and, almost certainly, why he was doing so. To many, the man may as well not exist, for how little effect he has on their life in the brief moment he interacts with them and therefore, our brains choose not to remember him. The next image (Blue Rectangle), is of Mike, a homeless man who lost the life he once had after a series of unfortunate events. He lost his job, then his family and after moving from Ottawa to Toronto, the last of the money he had attempting to find work here. He had the little belongings which were left to him, stolen by another person doing their best to survive on the streets. I spent over an hour speaking with and photographing him, learning his story and the troubles he faces, how he is working hard to recover from the theft, find a job and put a roof over his head. In that time only a handful of people spent more than glance looking at Mike before they too chose to forget about his existence. It was heartbreaking, seeing the way people regarded him. He was once a framer in the construction industry, but due to factors outside of his control he lost his life, a sequence of events which could happen to anyone and yet, no one had an ounce of sympathy for him, only pausing to make quips or spew put-downs about him or his “authenticity” as a homeless man. The thousands that passed him in the time that we talked, almost all turned a blind eye to his plea for help, money for food, to his circumstance, to his humanity… to him. They chose not to remember him or acknowledge his existence. They treated him like trash, or worse so, as more people would have stopped to pick up and throw away a piece of litter on the sidewalk, which brings us to the third and final image in this sequence (Magenta Rectangle). The block of colour is censoring not a person but a piece of trash, based on the previous two images the intention is to subvert the viewer’s expectations as the other two images have been of people. The angle is supposed to be of a bystander, walking by, looking down on the subject both literally and metaphorically as that is often the treatment we give those we believe are lower than ourselves. My intention with this piece was to challenge the way we see the world and the things, or people, which we believe are lower than ourselves. I wanted to ask the question, why is it that we choose to be blind to certain things in the world?