Untitled Document

Crumpled Milkskin
Once upon a time one could leave their door open wide, stray off the path and on occasion, accept kindness from a stranger. Not so.The reasons why fairy tales were written are as varied as the tales themselves. Whether they were written in order to dupe the public in the name of nationalism, or in some cases, simply the concoctions of an opium addled mind – they have remained cautionary tales through the centuries.
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Ammo Smokes & Debbie Cakes
‘Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country’
Inaugural address of John F. Kennedy, 20 January 1961.

JFK probably believed it.

In ‘Ammo Smokes & Debbie Cakes’ the concept of patriotism is the main theme. When the idea that loving your country is interchangeable with and confusingly inextricallbly linked with loving your government, then in my mind, there is a problem.
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Sulphur Skies, Oily Coins
In the tenement buildings and back streets of the 1850s – whether it be London or New York; life for some, was then, as it is now. Polluted stagnant air seeps into every street and room and smile and pore. Greasy hands are shaken with corpse clammy insincerity and one-sided deals are agreed.
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Lady Luck
Is a story of abductions - Although set in USA - the stories told are obviously of a world wide nature - concentrated mainly in those areas where vastness lends anonymity for some and cover for others. The size of the country and the spaces there-in, regardless of where in the world - unfortunately lend themselves to the possibility of an unfolding nightmare.
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Local News Story
A series of works relating local news stories deemed not suitable for national news – by those controlling the media and therefore the masses.
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The Good Book
A series of drawings that once again look at the uncomfortable alliance of sex and religion - where both are seen as disposable commodities.
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Malice in Wonderland
The earthly gateway to the promised land is not always what it appears to be; set in the 'Bible-belt' Mid West of America in the 1970s, the stories behind the pictures are disturbing in their inference and show the hollowness in their scriptures.
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Missing: series 1
The concept of going missing in America is terrifyingly easy.
Typically in one mid-western state an average of 1,900 people disappear per year.
This haunting, evocative and yet compelling series of paintings depicts in a series of narratives, in a variety of disquieting perspectives .
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Missing: series 2
Dameon’s work engages with the 'American Dream' and its unquestioning belief and hope; focusing on wanderlust and escape that ultimately ends in tragedy. ‘Since this girl represents not a person, but an image, or something desirable, the last thing we would expect him to want, would be to personalise this person.’ S. Michaud
(The Only Living Witness, 1983).
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The preoccupation and inspiration for Dameon Priestly's paintings is the story behind the picture
- what is not seen.

Is there such a thing as an average man or woman? Is there ever such a thing as an average day?
What goes on in the minds of the sexes and what happens behind closed doors? Dameon's paintings
engage in a series of narratives which subtly weave their way through the paintings: a visual
depiction of what can lie beneath the surface; at times in a seemingly innocent image.

Dameon's view of the world may be termed dark by some; his series of paintings reveal the
'strangeness' concealed behind the seemingly banal and random monotony of lifes' experiences
and human behaviour.

The stories they tell are those which the viewer does not necessarily want to know; and yet forces
them to fill in that which is not always apparent, resulting in the uncomfortable recognition of a
disturbing undertone.

Often Dameon depicts people seeking an alternative life and sees straight to the fragile hearts of his
characters without ever becoming sentimental.

With rare exceptions, his stories end with disturbing circumstances; as he captures his subject's
quiet desperation, with full emotional tension, anxiety and melancholy. Portrayed against everyday
backdrops where the drama unfolds.

His work lends itself to those basics of old-fashioned storytelling: plot, character, and action. The
culminating results within the paintings are sometimes both simultaneously beautiful and haunting;
or arresting in their strength.

Dameon sources literature; both fact and fiction, movies, religion, social and political history as his
inspirational pool; he lives and works in London and has sold paintings nationally and internationally.

The melancholic and often underlying tragic images in Dameon's work, are not faded Polaroid’s of
times past in an album, but rather are still vivid snapshots of a time which, although not dated, seem
familiar and recent, because of the relevance in things unchanged. This repetition of aspirations and
dreams unfulfilled and stopped dead; combined with the speechwriters rhetoric filled platitudes and
promises of those in control of ordinary lives.

In Lincoln’s 1st inaugural speech (March 4, 1861) he voices
“The mystic chords of memory…will yet swell…when again touched…by the better angels of our nature”.

This reassuring faith in people was repeated by Nixon in his inaugural speech (Jan 1969)
“When we listen to ‘the better angels of our nature’, we find that they celebrate the simple
things, the basic things – such as goodness, decency, love kindness”. The irony here is almost
farcical. Faith in human nature is at best a gamble. There will always be those whose desires have
not evolved, those who corrupt minds and carry out horrific deeds.

While people go missing and abductions and murders continue, the system to deal with these crimes
is often in a stagnant state, hampered by bureaucracy and ambivalence. The criteria which prioritise
its missing persons is often morally flawed and while forensic science may have developed, the
understanding and remedy for the dark side of man's mind is as far off as ever.

Sub note:
A comment, question or criticism of using the female image as the recurrent theme in Dameon’s work
occasionally arises.

The majority of source material of these images is from high street fashion magazines. The images are
adopted and adapted enough so as to not infringe on any copyright laws – but the integral feel and
expression of the carefully selected model is kept intact.

This means of working is an important part of the process of telling the story. The idea that an image
taken from a fashion magazine aimed at women, and placed and within a painting investigating and
commenting on the ‘story’ of women in the darker side of the modern world; can then be regarded as
exploitation or as an unnecessary sexual image, is in fact, part of the underlying message in the work.

In the documentary film ‘Picture Me’, model Sara Ziff tells of her third casting in The East Village,
New York, when a famous fashion photographer asked her to strip down to her underwear at the age
of 14. She goes on to document a series of questionable, if not disturbing incidents that happened to
her and other young models with top photographers. The resulting photographs from these shoots are
destined for women’s glossy magazines world wide.

Surely the question to be asked is – if these images are created for women to sell clothes, how can
they offend in the context of a painting when the accompanying message is changed to make the
viewer ‘see’ them differently? Again – to reiterate – if the fashion magazine image put within the
context of a painting offends or raises questions, then surely they should at least raise an eyebrow
at their original source. Photographers and advertisers know exactly what they are doing when
creating an image. Perhaps ‘Adbusters’ magazine addresses this conundrum better than most. When
product becomes image and the product being sold is on the vehicle of a human being, the picture
editor knows precisely what they are projecting and selling and which buttons are being pushed
to do so.

If the isolation of one of these images makes the viewer feel uncomfortable or question the
validity/morality or reason for their use – it’s probably because, at their source
– they should.