Monday 5 April 2010







There is a long and complicated story
behind these paintings,
and their title "Guilty Pleasures".

But my life does not understand this story.
My life is simply following instructions.
I instruct the tailor to make a dress.
I instruct the photographer to photograph the dress.
I instruct a painter to copy the photograph.
I repeat the previous command four times.

My life is a robot.

Life is imperfect.




Guilty Pleasures, by Lehan Ramsay, was shown at the Faculty Gallery, School of Art and Design, Monash University Melbourne Australia from July 13 - 24, 2009, as a component of a PhD in Visual Arts. The PhD was awarded in December 2009.


Doing this started me thinking about the problem of form - how the basic structures within which we catch information determine the information that accumulates, the meanings that those collections take on, and therefore the decisions we make. If in the pursuit of a new goal we do not consider the basic forms, the chances of real change diminish, because we are still likely to be dealing with the same basic information. And given our tendency to create known patterns, we have a greater likelihood of moving toward familiar outcomes, rather than new and unfamiliar ones. Perhaps this is the point where skill becomes form.

Lehan Ramsay, The Reserve, 2009.