Lain York: Artist Statement

I am interested in masks and the idea of transformation through masks. The title of this series, Transference, refers to an exchange of emotion or experience within ourselves, between individuals, and between the individual and object. It is a shifting around of intangible elements in an effort to better understand them or more fully experience them. In most cases, this exchange occurs on a level beyond language. I feel that what I do as a painter is a transfer or a displacement in an attempt to deal with the intangible in physical terms.

These particular images though inspired by African and Mayan masks and figures are distilled elements. I really don’t think of them as a part of any specific culture. They appeal to me as a record or evidence of the way a society or culture tries to make sense of the human experience through art and ritual. The record of this attempt, the art objects, is common to all societies past and present. All human societies in one way or another make art; we all share this basic need.