EMPATHY FOR STRANGERS

“Sitting on the top deck of a London bus, I let my mind stroll over the lives of the people on the street, they obtain new life stories; I’m placing myself in their shoes and forming a reason for my being in that place at that time, doing whatever they’re doing.

I have a wandering empathy for the imaginary lives of strangers.”

I’m sure most people have been entertained at one time or another by simply sitting back and watching society walk by. Whether in a coffee bar on Oxford Street, a tube train under London, a pub in the British countryside or a rooftop in a foreign land, I find myself drawn to just staring at the wonderful array of faces, cultures, fashions, body language and the simple differences that make us all unique. London of all places is one of the richest in diversity. Whether due to our history of invasions or our Mecca-like attraction for immigration, this nation has become a celebration of humanity in all its forms.

This habit of ‘people watching’ is only a fraction of the tale. The imagination of the viewer is a key to the simplistic strength of my work. There is within all the works, and also in their obscure titles, a half narrative. I’m telling just enough of the tale for imagination to take over, or, as the title of the exhibition suggests, the strangers upon the canvas are seeking the empathy of the viewer.

Occasionally the work is stripped back completely leaving the figures seemingly stranded on a plain. In this nothingness, stripped of their natural surroundings, there can be no other focus than the figures themselves. A high viewpoint and miniaturisation gives the viewer a deific look over humanity. Are they looking at a black bleak horizon and recognising their own precious fragility, or are they bravely forging a path to an unknown future?

The presence of light and shadows brings drama and somehow an intense presence of hope. Like the feeling of the sun striking your face on a cold day, the sense that a new season is on its way.

Henry Walsh 2008

Empathy:
1. The intellectual identification with or vicarious experiencing of the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of another.
2. The imaginative ascribing to an object, as a natural object or work of art, feelings or attitudes present in oneself: By means of empathy, a great painting becomes a mirror of the self. (Dictionary.com unabridged version 1.1)