“Barriers” depicts the macrocosm of conflict through expository
thought and symbolic imagery. The images probe at the
bifurcation of the modes in which conflict manifests itself; internal
and external. Both realms, though distinct, are fundamentally
entangled within an elemental context where they respond to
each other. Fire and smoke are motifs underscored in their own
respective sets of images to individually express discord,
ultimately coupling them together.

Fire allegorizes a contained catastrophe evocative of internal
strife. The visceral torment is physical and psychological as it sets
the figures ablaze, desensitized in their own innate inferno. With
the capacity to stifle its victims from attaining relief, fire becomes
established as an intimate obstacle to self. The sacrificial flames
encircle, divide, and alienate. These images render the internal
conflict as purgatorial yet placid in nature, fire as its direct
representation.

Smoke writhes as a subdued abstraction of conflict from the
external. This emblem serves as a caveat to a source of
dissonance, concealed from view, that emerges as an ambiguous
object of fixation for the figures seen. The smoke, exemplifying
consequences of conflict, becomes such a focal point that it
diminishes the importance of probing for its source. The recoil
from broken systems in group and societal settings account for
how the wavering ribbons came to be. The smoke denotes
tolerance of a reality fastened on the effects of blatant affliction
and ignorance of its cause.

The visualization of conflict in “Barriers” is expressed through
organic mediums, fire and smoke, both typifying contrasting
states through which discord is revealed. These mutual entities
serve as markers for complications developing from within and
beyond the individual. In view of the exhibited concepts, the

images bear a complex discourse between humanity and the
looming barriers they attempt to navigate.