Die Hard, Try Hard

Amanda Doran deals with her daily environment and her encounters. In the last half years, however, her focus has shifted, from habitual rituals, eccentricities and quirks to discomfort, death and rebirth. She sees the issues as a cathartic outlet that addresses the peculiarities and unpredictability of recent times. The artist reflects death, destruction, despair by depicting people in alternative cultures, such as the tattoo, punk or metal scene. The everyday situations have turned into gloomy and somewhat eerie images that show the cycle from death to rebirth, but with a pinch of dark humour. Life itself is a cycle of recurring phases that are confronted, fought against and destroyed in order to be able to return to light-heartedness.
Doran’s method of representation focuses on physical details that would also catch the viewer’s eye in real life. With their thick and coarse style and their exuberant and direct style of painting, the figures appear obscure, but also aesthetically pleasing, with their artistically tattooed skin. The thick, uncontrollable, sometimes chaotic layers of paint reflect the artist’s momentary feelings, those of a present that cannot be influenced.