works by Terence Sullivan

About the Work

‘I WISH YOU LOVED ME LIKE IN FILMS’ is a series of confessions of envy, lust, loss, disappointment, and the overwhelming need to be loved.

We, as audience members, find ways to project our emotions and desires onto film characters and the saturated world in which they live. This projection can ignite within us both inspiration and self-destruction. The comparison opens our eyes to the residual bruising of past relationships and the shortcomings of what may be our current relationships.

The layer of gold text on top of the appropriated portraits acts as not only an emotional confrontation, but also as a plea for a more intense and beautified life. The gold paint is a nod to the heightened drama of cinematic love. The use of stenciled letters removes the element of an identifiable hand. By removing the deeply personal element of handwritten words, the viewer can find their own confessions in the fragmented phrasing.

The objective is to have the viewers find themselves in each painting without feeling like voyeurs in someone else’s love story. The work is about that moment when you are sitting in a dark theatre surrounded by hundreds of strangers, your eyes begin to well up, your heart sits in your throat, and you keep thinking and wishing to yourself, “I want that...I should have said that... I WISH YOU LOVED ME LIKE IN FILMS.”