ART DESCRIPTION
In 1991 Kamen embarks on perhaps his first mature series, ‘Caged Waits’ (1991-93), which remain some of the most important works in his oeuvre. The ‘Caged Waits’ works, large abstract works based loosely on the format of the human skull and spine, are painted solely using sky blue, cream, black, coffee and graphite.
This work, from a much later date of 2013, revisit the palette from the ‘Caged Waits’ works, and also revisit the exploration of abstract elliptical shapes, here repeated in six vertical forms, that are portals to either freedom or containment in some form, whether it be drains, circles, or cages. Kamen has here used a Biblical text to paint on, which is used here in a somewhat irreverent form, perhaps as a form of rebellion from his religious childhood, and a need to explore what the Catholic Church meant to him. Kamen had been a dedicated choir boy in his early youth and had had many meaningful and impactful experiences within the context of the Church, within the wider context of colonialism which he experienced as a child of Burmese immigrants in Britain.
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