I wrote this statement in conjunction with the work from my first solo show at Wootini in November 2006:

This work is a collection of paintings, drawings, sculptures, and installation that centers on the ethics of the playground. Might makes right, and size definitely matters when your milk money is at stake. But which came first: the bully or the nerd? Who started it? How does it all escalate, and how long can that grudge really last?

The knife, the dagger and the bludgeon used in the sinks of iniquity, and by hardened criminals, are also found in the schoolroom, the house and the playground of tender youth.
–Anthony Comstock

The rules of the playground and the dynamics of those childhood alliances and battles all map well to the cycles of skirmishes and political maneuverings of adulthood. I am exploring the mechanics and psychology of these childhood clashes, while keeping in mind the adult versions of these conflicts. I started this project in earnest after seeing Steven Spielberg’s film, Munich, which recounts the abduction and killing of all 11 Israeli Olympic athletes in 1972 by a group of Palestinians, and follows the cycle of revenge killings by both sides. The message I took away from this film, that blood only gets more blood, was punctuated by the flare-up of Israeli-Palestinian-Lebanese tensions later in the summer of 2006.

With proxy weapons such as paper airplanes and rubber bands, and my every-bully character, Fist Face, I am probing into my own childhood memories of the playground through the lens of my current self.