Nothing & The Quandary of Painting were created at a time when my ideas about art were in flux, no-thing, not being and nothingness reference ideas around identity, value and relevance.

I needed to make art nothing so that I could rebuild my ideas about what was or was not art, this included the idea of myself as an artist. The work became a commentary on identity politics and branding. I realized that anything could be art, including found objects and my identity. I embraced the idea of the expanded field and a multidisciplinary approach to making art. I had to test the boundaries. This work opened the door to all my subsequent work, thoughts and projects. For example, in 1998 I held a Studio Sale of all my work to date, I catalogued, listed, priced and labelled everything from sketches and notebooks to large completed paintings. In 1999 I created an unbound visual book The Quandary of Painting-A Practical Handbook for the Making of Artworks this was an unbound visual book with four chapters: Representation?; The Grid (Failed Representation?); History Possibility? and Nothing. It consisted mainly of drawings in the form of notes, photographs, photocopies and collaged postcards. This work explored ideas for the making of artworks, some were realised, some were not and some are still being realised. These and other works of the time are documented here.