SEEMS LIKE A FREEZE OUT

I don't know how much the title means to you - it all depends how well you remember your Blonde on Blonde years - but here is a painting where the title came first, and the painting came along after.

What it means is a matter of speculation: all that is clear is that the person being frozen out is the artist/viewer; by whom and from what are for you to decide.  And, just like in some of my other recent work, the corroded gap that runs across the painting reveals a glimpse of what is beyond and, presumably, what we are being frozen out from.  This rent in the metal has been patched up, but we can still see through.  And the painted message, in an urban font that I chose carefully (it's not packing-case, and it's not military), says  ' ... OUT'.  

I want this to be redolent with guilt and exclusion; I want it to speak of places we're not supposed to be in; it's not good for us; we shouldn't want to be there, and we feel bad when we're frozen out.  These are the feelings I had time after time when I stole on board derelict ships, wondering what urged me on.  The more signs there were telling me to keep out, the more I needed to get in.