I define myself as a painter, so the substance and materiality of paint and the creation of images on surface is my focus. I am concerned with the way we see and engage with painting, as a response to exploring the way we see colour/images on screens in the "Post Internet era". I feel there is a lot of impetus for making work about this subject as the world of image production has changed so completely and radically since the invention and democratisation of the media via the internet and the digital era. I feel this is an important subject to broach and reaffirm painting's relevance in this digital and post-internet age.
Surface is important and my exhibition work started from drawings on semi-translucent paper, in an effort to replicate the sheer smoothness of the surface of the paper, I started to work on aluminium. This allowed me to suspend all the interventions of surface texture which come into painting such as canvas weave, canvas sagging, and flexibility of support. The work itself developed from looking at images of paintings online and examining how the images are made up, from pixels, and the patterns and colourings which create the illusion of an image, with all of the problems of image resolution and being able to zoom in on images where they are a different image in themselves.
Did you encounter any problems?
Ultimately the aluminium proved troubling due to its unforgiving nature and the time constraints to make paintings in limited months for the final exhibition. There were also issues with the edges of the work, which I solved by making the frames behind them smaller than the panels, which allowed them to float on the wall, a key factor in replicating the image of screens.
Practically speaking there are many painters who I regard in highly, Martin Kippenberger and Gerhard Richter being two important ones, but also I find Titian never really leaving the sphere of interests. Kippenberger's absolute refusal of 'styles' and his haphazard and impulsive paintings (and life) are very important to me. Gerhard Richter is of importance for his adaptation of contemporary modes of image production (the advent of a mass cheap media) in the form. His absolutely massive oeuvre is also of interest, and he's never stopped working.
I think the most helpful thing for me for my degree here at Farnham would be the opportunity to visit Vienna. It completely matured me as a painter and helped lead me to working in a more considered manner. I think the opportunity for artists visits and talks is also something which is largely beneficial. I learnt the complexities of hanging work, taking into accord every element that is in the room to enable you to make the best and most considered hang you can get for your work. There is no room for doing things without a reason in this respect.
I will build on my experience of exhibiting in past shows such as "The Owl Service" at Transition Gallery, and "What the Shop" in Vienna. I also have upcoming shows at Bearspace and "Language Fails" at Transition Gallery. I'm planning to get a studio and slug it out for a couple of years, then start to move into applying for a master's at places I have in mind.
60 Second Interview from earlier this year
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