Pieces of Conscience

intermittent works


about the works:

Felicity Papp about the title:
  "Though the artworks that are grouped under this heading were not created as pieces of a contiguous work series, they form a contextual unit.  The title I found myself assigning to these works reflects the opinion that the wildly over- and misused term 'Political Correctness' has become a disfigurement of it's own conception.  PC, a once well intended term, was - in my opinion - a self poisoning concept, as it was designed to dress up the potential unpleasantness of controverse charged denominators.  As such, it's sole function quickly became the act of redesigning previously undisputed terminology and consequently began to mask the underlying meanings.
  Kidnapping the abbreviation PC and naming the collection of works 'Pieces of Conscience'  is an attempt to wrangle the term from the wrong hands, expose it for the hippocracy it signifies, and turn it into the tool it was conceived to be."

  While the work series entitled "equipoise" constituted an unmistakable political statement, it was primarily a commentary on ethics and the nature of humanity.  The works that are grouped together under the title "Pieces of Conscience" seem to speak in a much less subdued language.

  Felicity Papp left the U.S. at the age of 19 to come to europe.  Seen against that biographical background the fact that she creates paintings of strong political content, might not come as a surprise, though the artist herself points out that it is not always intentional. 
  "I don't get up in the mornings thinking 'I'm going to make a political painting today!'," she says.  "Usually these images, or the concept behind them form in my head without me planning them - it's like emotional build-up that has to be scraped out.  I try to preserve that raw quality when I bring it onto the canvas."

  As for the individual paintings in this series, the artist declines to offer an interpretation in the hopes that letting the pieces try and speak for themselves will cause the viewer to reflect to an extent that goes deeper than the surface of the canvas.