This series results from research and projects developed over the past 8 years with organisations such as prisons, legal medicine institutes and human rights organisations based in conflict zones.
Although the artworks in this series do not deal with the themes covered by these earlier projects they explore, nonetheless, the ontological framework that underpins them, borrowing references from each project.
Cake iced with grief explores Freud’s early ideas about scopophilia (the pleasure of looking). According to Freud we have an erroneous perception that seeing means including, when in fact it is the very opposite. Our field of vision is always incomplete and this awakens our desire to see what can never be seen.
Whilst Martins’ doesn’t fully subscribe to Freud’s views he does however agree that we must model a way of seeing that is capable of withholding some ‘secrets’.
The background image is appropriated from a high profile film of a bygone era, depicting a moment of high drama immediately prior to a major plot disclosure or revelation.