Tell us what you work is about and what informs it
My work rooted within Modernity and is about a pure enjoyment of colour, form and shape, I like to make objects and images that are exaggerated representations of already existing items. I usually start with a form or image that I personally enjoy, this may be because of its graphic quality, vivid colour or its ability to suggest or symbolise another associations. The source of the things that inform my work comes from the city and the urban and are part of a huge sprawling system of culture, transport, commerce and communication.
My recent work has been themed around the packaging and semiotic language of agricultural packaging for fruit taken from markets. The packaging uses the natural attractiveness of organic products, to play on mans deeply rooted sociological desire to be lured to certain things, for example a ripe red apples. The packaging is a form of mass production and print and I am continually collecting them and also documenting them within the settings where I find them. Next I appropriate them and exaggerated even further into something that is an altered depiction of the original. The images are enlarged, repeated and saturated, making them hyper-real.
What I find pleasing in these cheap mass produced printed objects is the techniques and styles that are industrially used. Prints are usually simple and sometimes misregistured. As my collection of cardboard fragments grows I cross examine, compare and group images together, ready to be scanned into the computer and edited and turned into prints.
The migration from packaging found in the streets of the city to the studio allows the viewer to look past its physical properties as a container and consider the journey that these products have taken and the people that have been socially involved in their production. Through my work I hope to address themes like exploitation, deforestation, consumption and immigration.
I tried not to think too much about what my final piece was going to be for a while, I just focused on trying to produce as much as possible using the process that I had developed, whilst always trying new things and developing better works of art. Individual artworks were generally growing larger, and shifting between formed objects and wall based images. Designs were changing becoming more alluring. In the run up to the degree show I didn’t proposal anything mainly because I wasn’t sure what the final out come was going to be, but also because I wanted to see what space I was given so I could frame the work around it. When my space was allocated the first thing I did was measure it and draw up a floor plan. On looking at large room I saw it had a narrow entrance that was adjacent to a large wall. I decided to make my largest nonrepeating and most complex canvas to date in the space of this wall, and to give it a central focal point that would be viewable and luring through the entrance. The design that eventually became printed was a combination of a response to the space and a resolution of my collection of cardboards. I printed this piece in the space as to spend time in it and to let ideas form around the confinement of the walls. I then proceeded to bring every available artwork I had at my disposal into the room composing it as I saw fit and making new artworks in the process out of the surplus material that were abundant in the clearing out of the studios. The overall effect that was created was a colourful hectic environment that had no blank walls and a lot of fruit. As everything was brought together works, motifs and symbols started to play off each other and to the observant eye logical connections could be deciphered.
What has studying Fine Art at UCA Farnham given you?
UCA Farnham has provided me with the abundant space and resources needed to develop as an artist. The workshops and tutors have taught me how to become a maker. What I think is great is the freedom and access you have as a student, for example in the print room, apart from supplying your own paper everything else is free of charge allowing the creative flow not to be dammed by finance. Also the studio spaces are flexible and large enough for work to be ambitious. I was also given the opportunity to work on the Gustav Metzger project and made two works in response to the brief that pushed me to make ambitious work.
When setting up the degree show is a learning process, it’s a shift from having your work in the context of a studio to the context of a gallery. A degree of adaptation is need as the change of space means that you and the work have to respond and adjust around the limitations that are given.
What are you planning next?
I have already moved into a studio in Margate in order to keep producing work, and set myself up. I've realised that I have got a lot of work to do, so my initial plan is to start acquiring my own equipment so that I can become self-sufficient in producing screenprints. This will either be done in my studio or at a empty project space located in Ramsgate that me and a friend are trying to get up and going as a gallery/print workshop. What is fortunate about the Thanet area is that there a growing art scene which has a potential to be tapped into and their are other resources that I can use so that I can continue to develop my practice.
At some point Postgraduate study is also an option and I have had some positive experiences at the Royal College that have given me lots to think about and build on with Postgraduate study in mind.
My next project however is called "For the Love of Colour", I have had my application for a commission of public artwork accepted, which is great from me having just graduated less than a month ago.
My next project however is called "For the Love of Colour", I have had my application for a commission of public artwork accepted, which is great from me having just graduated less than a month ago.
The point of the commisssion is to connect the Turner Contemporary gallery with the Resort Studios in Cliftonville, and to encourage visitors to Margate to go beyond Turner and the old town into some of other parts of town. The aim of my work is to engage with young people who make up the different communities within Margate and help design public art.
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