Peter Mansfield graduated in Fine Art from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design in 2008 and currently lives and works in Dundee, Scotland. Through an interest in differing cultures he has travelled and worked primarily in Pakistan, but also in Spain and Mexico, where differences (and similarities) have inspired much of his thinking and work.
His recent drawings and paintings have been born out of experiences of visiting and living in Pakistan over the last few years. Returning to the UK always induced comparisons between the cultures.
2009/10
In my work, geometrics, patterns and compositions rooted in the Mogul Empire’s visual dynasty converge with today’s pop 'Superhero' legacy of the West.
From the domes and decagons of the East to stars and stripes of the West, connections in visual design have been intertwined through the centuries spanning nations and even continents through painting, architecture, interiors, textiles, fashion and beyond.
These two main subjects of influence both incur discussions regarding the nature of man in diametrically opposed positions. One, determined to prohibit the depiction of the human image from its framework of complex, mathematically perfected matrices, the other wishing to centre and elevate man to a super-human, god-like status.
Western culture’s celebrity, reality TV and Hollywood ‘higher-beings’ infatuations may contrast against the wave of backward looking, anti-media extreme stances of some of the East’s. But both, perhaps from differing morals or philosophies and with different responses, acknowledge something of man’s aspirations for perfection, drive to compete and desires to excel above the rest.
My paintings encapsulate these ideas alongside personal notions of childhood dreams, ambitions and influences.
The viewer is brought to an intimate standpoint and caused to question their relationship to the subject matter, negative or positive, confronting or concurring.