While the title of this exhibition suggests an assessment of some form, what is clear is that it signals a space where there are aspects of something that are unknown. The terms ‘known’ and ‘unknown’ are typically employed in risk mitigation in preparation for unpredictable circumstances that might involve volatility or hazards. For instance, societies are engaged in a little more risk mitigation these days as we’re in a period where the general vibe of our time is to prepare for something that might be coming, where communities and societies recognise volatility as a key word, whether it relates to the environment, the economy, or various military contexts. Today the word ‘unknown’ seems almost pervasive as a way of appraising the world because many things are presented as questionable, including objective facts and verifiable data. Individually, it’s not uncommon for many of us to consider our lives as forming within an unrestrained unpredictable collection of possibilities where almost anything might happen.

Peter Westwood’s exhibition parallels some of this uncertainty as he endeavours to convey how the world feels to him. However, there are two factors at play in this work, in that he also recognises that the human condition is marked by its own unsettling awarenesses between our desire for certainty and an acknowledgement of the random and chaotic nature of living, of being human. So, while the current state of the world is a catalyst for the uncertainty expressed in this work, he tries to capture the paradoxical nature of our human condition as one that arguably revolves around constantly navigating ambiguity and incertitude.




fig 1.  Installation view


fig 2.  Installation view

This exhibition coalesces into a mercurial atmosphere of changes in mood or direction where each work forms as a type of instance, much in the way we might think and feel as we experience our lives through a composite of variable moments that might be comprehensible, but to some degree, equally baffling. This is where we shift back and forth in our minds between recognition and cognitive dissonance. Westwood considers his paintings and editioned screenprints as a type of abstraction, subject to multiple interpretations, each of the works revealing broader concepts, devoid of conclusive meanings. This ambiguity allows for different experiences, values, or interpretations to permeate the works. Therefore, when we move through this exhibition, we do so without the aid of narrative, guiding principles or defined connections, arriving at conclusions that might be more formed in the risky business of feeling, experiencing and handling unknown and abstract encounters, rather than ever really knowing.

Within his creative works, Westwood strives to hold simultaneous feelings of vastness and of smallness with nothing left to be said but to find a personal space where we can take this in, straddling equivocality, deliberating on the known unknowns in the world, and at the centre of all of our lives.









fig 3.  Installation view