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My work is at the point where Outsider, Folk and Contemporary Art meet, combining a visionary, conceptual and craft approach. I live and work in the same space 24/7. There is no separation of daily life and art; they are both and one intertwined. There is a sense of claustrophobia within this scene of domesticity. The idea of the home being the site of women’s creativity, “embroidering the sampler in the parlour.” My Romani life adds to this domestic claustrophobia of confined spaces and ritual cleaning habits of domestic feverish madness. This is not the “happy housewife in the country kitchen or the barefoot Gypsy idling away with a painted wagon in the background.” My works are the struggle to escape the stereotypes, and l employ symbols that the viewer thinks they understand. Union Jacks, Disney characters, children’s animal motifs, nursery rhymes and traditional embroidered cottages. I take these familiar images, retain their democratic nature but create a shift in their meaning. Utilising a shared, universal store of popular icons: badges, patches and slogans – all are images drawn naturally from my own time. The author Colin Rhodes notes in ROOM: “The national-cultural machine is present in dominant motifs like the skull and crossbones… a mass-produced fabric patch invites the viewer to celebrate the 1991 Gulf War.” Both are turned on their heads, but as a result of, not in spite of, their intended meaning. Scratch beneath the glittery surface and you will see a violent undercurrent, exposing things for what they are, drawn in by the prettiness to be confronted by what lurks beneath the surface, the wolf in sheep’s clothing being a reoccurring theme. Observing from two cultural viewpoints and creating a visual representation of those thoughts, an individual vision that appears from this dual perspective. From one aspect, always being the ‘Outsider, a Visionary Voyeur’. Like fairy tales, all very pretty on the outside but holding dark tales. Myths, stories and religious motifs assembled together. The good and the evil, the dark and the light, politically correct and incorrect. As a Romani, my viewpoint has always been that of the outsider, and this position of the ‘other’ is reflected in the materials and messages within my work. We live in a culture of mixed values and garbled messages. My works are crafted from the disregarded and disparate objects of the car-boot sale and the charity shop. A bricollage of materials. Employing the materials of the everyday, all formed together in a manner that allows then to be precious yet reclaimed.  Delaine Le Bas | photo: Tara Darby |
Works
