Untitled Document

Dameon Priestly - Artist
Forthcoming
Parallax Art Fair
Thursday 16 Feb. - Saturday 18 Feb. Chelsea Town Hall, London SW3 5EE

Magdalene Asylums
'A sullen temper, often shown by refusing food, is best dealt with by silence. When a girl wakes up to the fact that no one takes any notice, nor is troubled (apparently at least) by her self-starvation, she gets weary of her self-imposed martyrdom and learns sense'. Arthur J Maddison, Hints on Rescue Work, A Handbook for Missionaries and Superintendents of Homes (1898)

Legacy: e nomine padre
In the United States, a federal judge in Kentucky ruled that the Holy See is a foreign state that enjoys certain immunity protections. In the judge’s opinion these included protection for the Vatican against any claims arising from sexual abuse litigation. Another ruled in December 2005, that Pope Benedict XVI enjoys immunity as a head of state and removed him from a civil lawsuit accusing him of conspiracy to cover up sexual abuse by a seminarian.
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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 inextricably 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 personalize this person.’ S. Michaud
(The Only Living Witness, 1983).
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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.

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.

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.

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.

His work lends itself to those basics of old-fashioned storytelling: plot, character, and action.
Combined with traditional themes in art - sex, politics and religion. 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.