Elspeth’s paintings explore the complexity of relationships. Certainties of identity, progress and rationality are brought into question as the separation between animal and human diminishes from an absolute biological distinction to an increasingly delicate web of ecological, social and personal relationships. No imagery is innocent however banal. The mundane is not the same as the trivial. Her work investigates that space between outward appearance and internal structure and considers the complex mechanisms through which our personal and public identities are created. The resulting pictorial dimension lies somewhere between reality and imagination. Born 1954 New Zealand BFA (hons) Massey University Wellington New Zealand 2007