Artists Statement
Twinkle Troughton, a Margate based artist, creates paintings that are politically and socially driven.
Using a combination of oils and acrylics on paper, Twinkle’s paintings bridge the past with the present, focusing on political and social struggles, which at their root, have not changed for thousands of years. This concept is explored through ancient fables whose moralistic prose can often still have relevance today.
Twinkle’s current work is inspired by the Aesop’s fable The Frogs Who Desired a King, which is a tale about a pond full of frogs that want change. Instead of the change they ask for they are sent King Stork who eats them all up. The character King Stork is often used to depict dictatorship, and King Louis XIV is thought to have favoured the story for its common interpretation that people shouldn’t challenge the status quo. The moral of the story is to be careful what you ask for.
In her new paintings Twinkle uses the frogs’ plight as a way to explore the complexities of revolution, with particular focus on Syria in this present day. Minimal in content, scenes for fables are often set ‘by a road’ or ‘under a tree’. Combining this principal with influences from historical war painters such as Paul Nash, Twinkle uses fluid brush strokes to evoke war torn landscapes, without explicitly describing a particular time or place.
Twinkle has also worked with found objects, mixed media, and performance. She often collaborates with Tinsel Edwards on topical, politically motivated interactive art stunts. Some of these performances have included kidnapping a banker, keeping him held captive in the gallery while visitors wrote thoughts about the global economy on bespoke Twinkle and Tinsel banknotes.
To download a PDF artists statement please click here.
Using a combination of oils and acrylics on paper, Twinkle’s paintings bridge the past with the present, focusing on political and social struggles, which at their root, have not changed for thousands of years. This concept is explored through ancient fables whose moralistic prose can often still have relevance today.
Twinkle’s current work is inspired by the Aesop’s fable The Frogs Who Desired a King, which is a tale about a pond full of frogs that want change. Instead of the change they ask for they are sent King Stork who eats them all up. The character King Stork is often used to depict dictatorship, and King Louis XIV is thought to have favoured the story for its common interpretation that people shouldn’t challenge the status quo. The moral of the story is to be careful what you ask for.
In her new paintings Twinkle uses the frogs’ plight as a way to explore the complexities of revolution, with particular focus on Syria in this present day. Minimal in content, scenes for fables are often set ‘by a road’ or ‘under a tree’. Combining this principal with influences from historical war painters such as Paul Nash, Twinkle uses fluid brush strokes to evoke war torn landscapes, without explicitly describing a particular time or place.
Twinkle has also worked with found objects, mixed media, and performance. She often collaborates with Tinsel Edwards on topical, politically motivated interactive art stunts. Some of these performances have included kidnapping a banker, keeping him held captive in the gallery while visitors wrote thoughts about the global economy on bespoke Twinkle and Tinsel banknotes.
To download a PDF artists statement please click here.
