Elegy of a Chinese moon
True progress consists not in being progressive, but in progressing.
Bertold Brecht
Mark Davies' work can be understood as reconstructed anger, violence and disharmony: anger transformed into a collected and ordered format. The "Elegy of a Chinese Moon ", a poem of death, tension, confusion and fear has been remoulded into a balanced image. The large dark panels of interwoven scratches and crosses have been placed in an hierarchical format. Tainted red silos imbedded in the vast area of black and white torment become visual balancing points within the work. The colour red attracts attention and in conjunction with the title becomes the symbol of sadness and pain. In Restriction no panel is out of place, each colour is repetitively marked: here all disharmonious feelings have been controlled. Confined agony is expressed in a geometric and structured order: one recognises the true frustration of never being able to escape the grid. All irrational expressions have been overshadowed by the hierarchy of the intellect. The panels have been methodically regulated and each shows a kind of disciplined anger of black crosses and interlinking random movement. Each panel could represent human life struggling to escape its confined existence. The pain of the world (Weltschmerz) is indicated- the continual battle within its power structures, the daily competition for survival, social existence and moral obligation.