The Serious Uddlium

Brian McFie January to mid February 2023

The Serious Uddlium, 5 Strains. (Exhibited work), Siblings. Nos. 1 & 2 (Online works).  This is the title of the project I have had in process since completing my String and Twins show held at Sogo Arts in Glasgow in late 2019. The subsequent work was as a result of the passing of my mother in December 2019 (my father passed away three years earlier) and then the strange state we were all plunged into due to the pandemic in 2020. Under these circumstances I found myself totally isolated for four months. I found my life pared down to work for its own sake. As I found existing vocabulary inadequate to describe this state of affairs I invented the word ‘Uddlium’ in order to fabricate a starting point for the process which continues to this day. I prefixed it with ‘Serious’ in an attempt to undermine the effects of isolation. I developed a working method through my sketchbooks and began to observe a fixation with life and relationships at a microscopic level as my own world had shrunk to the confines of my work space.