Daniel Chester

Born in Sligo 1976, Daniel Chester studied at the Sligo Institute of technology receiving a B.A honours degree in fine art. He has exhibited throughout Ireland and Britain and in 2002 was one of a group of artists selected to exhibit their work in Kempton, Germany as part of a two week residency. Chester’s work is delivered using realism and is concerned with the connection between himself as an artist, his past, present and future and that of the society he lives in. His work is self portrayal and personal but he invites the viewer to connect with his images by using their own feelings and thoughts provoked by his work.

Artist statement

As a child I suffered enormously from chronic asthma attacks. In order to control the tightness, panic, fear and loss of control of my body I would draw imaginary boxes around people and objects. This enabled me to step back from what was happening and let my body go through its natural healing process.
As an artist, the focus of my practice is drawing and I feel compelled to produce work which sets about exploring the visual impact of the early experiences of anxiety, panic, disconnectedness and isolation.

Although I never felt comfortable in front of the camera lens, I needed the work to originate from its true source – myself. The finished image had become a process of evolution, the lens captured the performance of the artist and the artist becomes the viewer. The completed works are a series of drawings which reflect back to the ‘viewer’ the artist’s performance. Knowledge of the character’s environment is deliberately removed from the work. This lack of information aims to disconnect the viewer; the neutral space evokes a feeling of emptiness, phobia and fear-related disorders. The conscious use of red paint signifies the erratic behaviour of the character’s personality in an isolated world.