Daisy Parris (born 1993 in Kent, UK) is a young British painter who is making their first appearance at Makasiini Contemporary this fall. In the title of the exhibition, Rocks are Heavy, Parris alludes to a poem they wrote called “Survival Poem”, an adaptation of the late Dorothy Parker’s work “Resume” published in 1926, on which many of the paintings for this body of work are based.
After reading “Resume” as a teenager, the poem became a mantra for Parris, exploring themes of life, death and depression in a way that was accessible to them. It also introduced them to the opportunity of grappling with the idea of survival – a want to survive and a recognition that death is as hard as life. The paintings in the exhibition are a navigation through the depths of their experience, twists, turns and questions but are ultimately and profoundly about hope.
These are hopeful paintings that touch on serious themes and hold hands with depression. Dorothy Parker uses humour to deal with such themes and I use colour. Her poem is a mantra for survival, and I wanted to continue that by adapting it to reference things in the contemporary landscape that are familiar to me.
– Daisy Parris, September 2021
