The Greek word “Menis’ is one of the first words in the Iliad and it is variously translated as a kind of all consuming ‘wrath’ or ‘rage’ that transcends reason onto a level that changes all it touches.
It is a word that resonates deeply with Philip Faulks since the life altering secrets that were revealed by the death of his parents in 2010 and 2012.
Menis is an extension of Faulks’ drawing practice, and consists of ornate images cut from black paper emphasising a graphically oriented exploration of ideas of ancestry, mortality and genetic inheritance via stylistically patterned figurative panoramas.
The real purpose of this work only gradually revealed itself to Faulks as he carved his way through layers of black paper, like a termite excavating a circuitous route through the topography of secrets to shed light on the true nature of the duality of familial love.