Cherry Blossom I, 2016
Dan Baldwin
Silkscreen print on paper with glazes
Image size: 70 X 65 cm
Paper size: 86 x 80 cm
Retail Price: £990
"I've always looked back to innocence and nostalgia in my work. I have to be able to understand my own art, before anyone else can. In my recent work I have been confronting personal issues; being suddenly uprooted from the north to the south, taken away from my father without warning as a child- these ideas have been floating in my mind.
In these pieces (designed as a diptych) we see two rooms, two interiors, the kind of familiar domestic interiors that should inspire a sense of safety and comfort. In one, we see my mantelpiece, the clock always set to 2.40, or twenty to three: 23 being my favourite number and the date of my birth. The rooms are populated with symbols of refuge; the bird returning to the nest, children climbing the stairs.
The inclusion of the VW Beetle in Cherry Blossom II also has very a personal meaning; it was my first car and I restored it with my stepfather, it was also the means for getting to art college and finding independence. At the same time these cosy rooms are invaded by a sense of time passing, the fragility of memory; a cracked vase, a barbed wire fence, a fire, rain clouds. And finally the cherry blossom, which in Japanese culture is a reminder that life is overwhelmingly beautiful, but also tragically short."
Dan Baldwin
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