I am interested in the experience of wonder. Wonder is the feeling of surprise mixed with admiration caused by something beautiful, unexpected or inexplicable. It is an open state of mind that allows the ordinary room to move and become extraordinary. Wonder is the guiding principle of my artistic process. I make a space in my work where wonder can creep in.

Collage is integral to my process. I combine a variety of media: photographs, prints, paint and collage to create images that capture the specificity of experience, the familiarity of real spaces together with objects that bump up against the imagined and the impossible. It is a space made of pieces, where questions are posed as juxtaposed fragments. The resolution of each question leads to another. Working in this way, I make cut-and-paste hybrids where flowers become figures in the landscape, and dreams of paradise morph into dystopian nightmares.

The road also speaks to my idea of wonder. I see the road as a metaphor for our lives. A powerful symbol of movement, adventure, and transformation, the road connects where we've been with where we are now and where we hope to be going. The road cuts through worlds imbued with the mysterious and veiled in the residue left by layers and the passage of time; it mediates a world that tingles with hundreds of tiny moments of discovery.



Karsten Creightney