Bradley Foisset
A Brook at Razorback (2024)
Acrylic on Canvas
90 x 60 cm,
100 x 70 cm (Framed)
Drawing from my archive of amateur 35mm soldier slides in Vietnam (1958-1973), a 1968 slide of five soldiers bathing in a brook spoke to me on the theme of lineage. The scene evokes a primitive tribal setting, and the metaphor of water, like the Mekong rivers branching tributaries, recall family lines extending and merging. The sacred Mekong’s source is seen as the origin of this lineage, while the soldiers symbolize a similar "origin" Homo sapiens. My visit to Razorback Mountain in 2012 connected me to family members who served in Dong Ha Valley and the found photograph. The deterioration of the archived slides, enhanced in replication, collapse time in the plastic like paint.
Bradley Foisset is an American artist residing in Singapore.
His practice explores the intersection of the past and its latent possibilities, navigating disruptions to harmony through deviance and taboo.
His work blends dark ecology, Paganism, and contemporary visual cultures with legend, ritual, and myth.
His practice explores the intersection of the past and its latent possibilities, navigating disruptions to harmony through deviance and taboo.
His work blends dark ecology, Paganism, and contemporary visual cultures with legend, ritual, and myth.
By transforming objects into conduits for abundance, guidance, or spiritual fulfillment, Bradley manipulates them to confer power, whether through anointing, inscribing, or merging elements from various historical contexts. Working across painting, installation, and collage, he crafts works that evoke potency through the alchemy of material manipulation. Bradley holds a BFA from LASALLE/Goldsmiths. He received the Winston Oh Travel Award in 2012, traveling to Vietnam.