Nigel Sense

Fox Galleries is proud to present CATERPILLARNESS, a new body of work by Nigel Sense.

In the early 1990s Kurt Cobain famously said “I’d rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not.”

Fast forward 30 years and we’re facing the proliferation of individualism, social media, Facebook, Instagram, the pressure to embrace consumerism, and lead a perfectly pictured and curated life. It’s becoming more difficult to truly be ourselves. Wearing a mask is the new past time. Whether it be the one we put on to wear to work or the one we wear to argue on facebook. What if we were to strip away these masks and be ourselves. This body of work is an exploration to try and find out. The work intends to challenge the viewer to examine their own masks and to encourage them to take them off. I am not looking to provide the answers. When the mask is taken off then what? Is it even possible to function in society without it? Where do you draw the line?

When we wear a mask we are restricted to behave in a way that fits that character. It holds us back by limiting everything from how we act to what we say and wear. If we take off the mask we’re free of this restriction and can be whatever we want. As Ram Dass says: “Be Here Now”. “The caterpillar isn’t walking around saying: Man I’ll soon be a butterfly, because as long as he’s busy being a caterpillar he can’t be a butterfly. It’s only when caterpillarness is done that one starts to be a butterfly.”