Basil’s practice explores aspects of psychology, self-creation, and perceived identity through figures and anthropomorphized objects that create a dissected depiction of the self. The visual world within the paintings revolves around Basil’s everyday life and his existential examinations through banal objects and architecture directly taken from his personal space. Woven throughout this domesticity are self-portraits of varying degrees of abstraction featuring a bald man with almond shaped eyes and intricately depicted chest hair. Oftentimes, multiple self-portraits aggregate within one composition into a variety of narrative characters or alter egos interacting with one another and the pictorial environment to explore introspection with a corresponding awareness of the subjectivity of external perception charged with a darkly ironic humour.
A dominant factor in the core essence of Basil’s work is the concept of self-creation and an interest in the coded languages we use to construct our identity. This facet is considered in the manner we view ourselves but also a heavy awareness of the fragmented clues which we project into the world that are pieced together by others to form an impression of who we are. In this regard, these ‘suggestions’ outwardly demonstrate but also simultaneously hide our individuality. Correspondingly, each metaphorical reading of Basil’s portraits or objects can in some sense construct a characterization of who the artist is. However, these assumptions are ultimately subjective, inconsistent and evolving, frequently saying more about our own projections and neurosis. The consistent skepticism in the eyes of the artist throughout the works presents a consciousness of the viewers gaze, almost as if he were challenging our interpretations. In this regard, the encouraged voyeurism and our instinctual attempts to analyse the artist biographically through it, becomes an exercise demonstrative of the inefficacy of our attempts as human beings to truly know one another.
Adversely to this, the stare directed towards the viewer, emanating from each of the portraits, suggests a vulnerability and a longing to be known and understood. The portraits and their habitat present a heightened exposure, depicting an at times harsh focus on the reality of a daily routine alongside a deeper insinuation of internal conflict. In this sense, through his version of a coded language in the form of presenting himself through works that deliberately break down physical privacy and imagery that ‘hides in plain sight’ with regards to psychological interpretation, Basil demonstrates a raw yearning to communicate and connect. The contradiction between the melancholy of our elusive attempts to know one another and the artist’s direct and unprotected laying bare of himself, both literally and figuratively, thus encapsulates the ambivalence at the foundation of human condition.