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Amaimon (Jason)
Watercolour on Paper
40x29cm
2012
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Donald (Alex)
Watercolour on Paper
40x29cm
2012
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Goofy (Catherine)
Watercolour on Paper
40x29cm
2012
|
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Lavi (Edward)
Watercolour on Paper
40x29cm
2012
|
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Prishe (Emma)
Watercolour on Paper
40x29cm
2012
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Hope (Sarah)
Watercolour on Paper
40x30cm
2012
O
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Squall (Jason)
Watercolour on Paper
40x30cm
2012
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Tidus (Joe)
Watercolour on Paper
40x30cm
2012
|
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Lightening (Frankie)
Watercolour on Paper
40x30cm
2012
|
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Aled as Zero
Watercolour on Paper
40x29cm
2011
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Amy as Zero
Watercolour on Paper
40x29cm
2011
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Blanca as Yuki Cross
Watercolour on Paper
40x29cm
2011
|
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Viva as Yuki Cross
Watercolour on Paper
40x29cm
2011
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Michael as Kuran Kaname
Watercolour on Paper
29x20cm
2011
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Shirley as Yuki Cross
Watercolour on Paper
29x20cm
2011
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Ruby as Night Class Student
Watercolour on Paper
29x20cm
2011
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Michael as Night Class Student
Watercolour on Paper
29x20cm
2011
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Alice as Yuki Cross
Watercolour on Paper
29x20cm
2011
|
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Adventure Time with Fionna (Courtney)
Watercolour on Paper
18 x 13cm
2013
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(Ciel)
Watercolour on Paper
13 x 18cm
2013
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Eridon (Hannah)
Watercolour on Paper
13 x 18cm
2013
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Ichigo (Dean)
Watercolour on Paper
13 x 18cm
2013
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Johnny Reaper (Angie)
Watercolour on Paper
13 x 15cm
2013
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King Dedede (Amanda)
Watercolour on Paper
13 x 18cm
2013
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Psiioniic (Adam)
Watercolour on Paper
13 x 18cm
2013
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Unicorn (Amber)
Watercolour on Paper
13 x 18cm
2013
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Aela the Huntress (Rose)
Watercolour on Paper
13 x 18cm
2013
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Karkat
Watercolour on Paper
13 x 16cm
2013
O
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Maylene
Watercolour on Paper
13 x 18cm
2013
O
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Lightening (Laura)
Watercolour on Paper
6.35x8.89cm
2012
O
|
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Lightening (Naomi)
Watercolour on Paper
6.35x8.89cm
2012
|
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Lightening (FFXIII2)
Watercolour on Paper
6.35x8.89cm
2012
|
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Lightening (FFXIII)
Watercolour on Paper
6.35x8.89cm
2012
|
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Caius Ballad
Watercolour on Paper
6.35 x 8.89cm
2013
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Marluxia (Daryl)
Watercolour on Paper
6.35 x 8.89cm
2012
O
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Ichigo (Curtis)
Watercolour on Paper
6.35 x 8.89cm
2012
|
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Sassori (Joe)
Watercolour on Paper
6.35 x 8.89cm
2013
|
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Mephisto (Michaela)
Watercolour on Paper
6.35 x 8.89cm
2013
|
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Alice (Tanya)
Watercolour on Paper
6.35 x 8.89cm
2012
|
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Boris (Steph)
Watercolour on Paper
6.35 x 8.89cm
2012
O
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Ikki (Thant)
Watercolour on Paper
6.35 x 8.89cm
2012
|
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Miku (Paul)
Watercolour on Paper
6.35 x 8.89cm
2012
|
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Akira Kogami (Jo)
Watercolour on Paper
6.35 x 8.89cm
2012
|
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Nell (Squids)
Watercolour on Paper
6.35 x 8.89cm
2012
|
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Nelliel (Linda)
Watercolour on Paper
6.35 x 8.89cm
2013
|
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Nell (Linda)
Watercolour on Paper
6.35 x 8.89cm
2012
O
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Morgana (Becki)
Watercolour on Paper
6.35 x 8.89cm
2013
|
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Poison Ivy
Watercolour on Paper
6.35 x 8.89cm
2013
|
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Juliet Starling (Lollipop Chainsaw)
Watercolour on Paper
6.35 x 8.89cm
2012
|
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Alice (Alex)
Watercolour on Paper
6.35 x 8.89cm
2012
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In my recent work, I have begun to immerse myself in the Cosplay subculture. Cosplayers are young people who dress up and role-play characters from Computer Games and Manga, taking these charatcers into the urban environment and transforming their surroundings within their imagination. Cosplayers meet in groups and dress from a diverse selection of texts. Extending their digital interactions into another social setting, they form multiple narrative possibilities that expand upon the original text or weave a number of texts together. Through the construction their own highly detailed outfits, they take these characters into the urban environment and transform their surroundings within their imagination. The Cosplayer's identity thus becomes a vehicle or a physical avatar, which they inhabit and use to explore and interact with the real world.
In my portraits of Cosplayers, I have attempted to mix the reality with the fantasy. In each portrait a single figure is presented on white paper. In doing this I am presenting the barrier between the Cosplayer and the viewer. Though they are re-imagining the actual landscape, this is going on inside their subconscious and we are not party to their interpretation. As outsiders, we are excluded and unable to share in their fantasy. In some works I have incorporated elements of the actual landscape as though representing a breakdown of digital information. We are provided us with a tantalising glimpse of their internal imaginings, but frustratingly, we have no knowledge of its transformation. My works are essentially portraits of various avatars reimaging their real environment as a gaming arena.
As with computer games, Cosplay is another form of immersive escapism. Cosplay expands the individual's relationship with the environment, affecting their surroundings, as well as members of the public in their vicinity. Participants of subcultures appropriate public space to maintain and affirm their shared cultural identity. In Cosplay, they expand the digital realm into the real world. Objects or locations are anthropomorphised into items specific to the gaming text. Accordingly, Cosplayers are thus able to appropriate an urban location, transforming it into a safe space for them to play. Furthermore, Cosplayers construct an impenetrable fantasy within their own subconscious where outsiders are not only excluded from the public space, but also from the space within the Cosplayers imagination. They see 'the space as a stage' and themselves as an 'actor' performing as their chosen character. Although the public may interact in the same space as the Cosplayer, the Cosplayer is simultaneously on another plane altogether, an internal fantasy constructed within their mind. This construct is then imposed upon the real landscape. An object or location within the real world is shifted to become something of significance in the fantasy. As with a constructed digital universe, the imagination of the individual has the ability to transform the mundane into the sublime.
