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About Madeleine's Work

You cannot kill me in a way that matters... Decay exists as an extant form of life

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My work sterilises and interrogates the grotesque. Moving between unconscious and conscious decay through still life painting. The art aims to confront the viewer and develop a positive relationship with disgust. These paintings push preconceived notions of mortality and the body, providing a new recontextualised home for such subject matter. 
The settings for the creatures, mouldy fruit and rotting bodies are vibrant and clean. My backgrounds take inspiration for the gallery, pop art and the work of Duchamp, Koons and Warhol. The desensitising and commercialising of graphic imagery by Takashi Murakami has initiated my current exploration in the role of sublimation and desublimation through the role of context and subject.
Decontextualisation lies at the core of my artwork, essential in luring the audience, attempting to dispel disgust and fear. 
Peeling back the layers of my work, it is derived with a personal fascination of taboo and art history. The techniques used to create my work have developed over many years of painting and travel, using historic and cultural methods of painting to experiment and thus ground my work.
The context is based around intensive research and reading, using authors such as Julia Kristeva, Hal Foster, Damien Hirst and Gilles Deleuze to inform my artistic landscape. I use my academic writing to push the boundaries of my art, to identify the morphing and contorting goal of the physical work.
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No matter where you go, you will always find death, decay and repulsion. Take the time now, with my art, to accept it, cherish it and exist amongst it.

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