Tuesday 2 May 2017

Work In Progress: 'This Skeptic/Sceptic Isle'. 'Flags' 1



Untitled: Acrylics, Paper Collage, Ink, Spray Enamel, French Polish On Paper,
40 cm X 60 cm, 2017



Recent months have been characterised by a kind of creative diffusion, in which fluctuating engagement with a number of competing projects has replaced concerted, in-depth focus on any one thing.  The inevitable consequence of such a situation is that I have a variety of things in production, or gestation, but still relatively little in the way of actual completed work; oh, and ideas – every day more ideas…


As Above (Detail)


It’s a strange problem to have.  For so many years, I tortured myself with a perceived inability to do anything of any value, whilst being simultaneously unable to imagine what it was I actually wanted to make or say.  The current state of affairs is the direct inverse of that; i.e. so much I want to do, coupled with frustration over the inevitable stop-start nature of so many parallel ventures.  The impossibility of fitting it all round the demands of a day job and age-related, diminishing energy levels don’t help much either.




Untitled: Acrylics, Paper Collage, Ink, Spray Enamel, French Polish On Paper,
40 cm X 60 cm, 2017

As Above (Detail)


But, (and this is important), I’d take this brand of frustration over the previous one - any day of the week.  Even if a certain lack of confidence still hold sway over my life, (as has been quite noticeable just lately), it’s largely uncoupled from my art.  That’s not to say that what I make is necessarily any good – just that I have few doubts about the value of persevering in the attempt to improve it, and absolutely none about the central role it plays in my life.  To be honest, it’s all the other everyday-life stuff that causes more uncertainty, these days.  In that context, any impatience with having too much I want to do, and insufficient time or energy to resolve it all, merely feels like something to ‘just deal with’.  Either way, the only workable solution is to stop wasting time on navel-gazing, and just get on with what I can, when I can.




Untitled: Acrylics, Paper Collage, Ink, Spray Enamel, French Polish On Paper,
40 cm X 60 cm, 2017

As Above (Detail)


Which is all a long-winded, self-indulgent way of introducing some actual new work.  Recent work-related posts have showcased completed paintings from my ‘From The New School’ series (itself part of a larger, ongoing project).  What you see here are the first concrete manifestations of a completely separate undertaking, which, for now, labours under the working title of ‘This Skeptic Isle’.  Actually, depending on how bleak my view of current events and the news becomes, on any given day – that might alternatively read as ‘This Sceptic Isle’.



Untitled: Acrylics, Paper Collage, Ink, Spray Enamel, French Polish On Paper,
40 cm X 60 cm, 2017

As Above (Detail)


From which, you’ll deduce, - the disposition of this particular venture is hardly sunny or optimistic.  Accumulating despondency over current political events, both global and domestic, and the alarming lurch to extreme Right-wing narratives, blinkered ‘populism’, petty nationalism, and a general devaluation of fact or reason, is hardly an original idea, just now.  But, in this part of the world at least, it’s impossible to sidestep a general mood of fear and insecurity; a sense that the centre will no longer hold, if you like.  And, like it or not, one single event seems to cast it’s long shadow over the attempts of ordinary British/European people to just get on with their lives.  It will continue to do so for years to come, whichever side of the divide you find yourself on.  Let’s call it Post-Referendumb, Brexistential despair - shall we?



Untitled: Acrylics, Paper Collage, Ink, Spray Enamel, French Polish On Paper,
40 cm X 60 cm, 2017

As Above (Detail)


So, if these images suggest a somewhat unoriginal outbust, rather than any attempt at constructive insight - so be it.  If nothing else, that seems to square with the prevailing zeitgeist.  Besides, sometimes it’s perfectly valid to just deal with the most obvious thing before your face, and to chip-in your two-penny worth to the wider debate.  And sometimes you just need to get stuff out of your head - in order to preserve what passes for ‘sanity’.



Untitled: Acrylics, Paper Collage, Ink, Spray Enamel, French Polish On Paper,
40 cm X 60 cm, 2017

As Above (Detail)


It’s not worth going into too much detail over these particular pieces here - not least because they may actually turn out to be work in progress.  Each employs a somewhat unhinged variation on my now-familiar hybrid painting/collage M.O. and is resolved to my relative satisfaction at this stage.  But it’s also possible that they may be further adapted or recycled within what is now shaping up to be a wider, more far-reaching project (in my mind, at least).  Alongside them in the mixer are also a kind of appropriated, 5-act script (for what may become a video of some sort), and rapidly accumulating photos of white vans, cardboard boxes, discarded white goods, and street trash.  It’s impossible to say exactly how this all fits together as yet, but it is definitely starting to acquire a kind of cumulative, more or less oblique, state-of-the-nation vibe.




West Leicester, April 2017

North Leicester, April 2017

Balsall Heath, Birmingham, February 2017


One last thing: It would be foolish to pretend these flag images aren’t heavily influenced by Jasper Johns’ American flag paintings.  They come from an entirely different context, of course – and carry a far more nuanced philosophical freight.  Nevertheless, Johns is an artist whose work and example I’ve returned to repeatedly over the years, and those paintings are inevitably engrained within my own subconscious image bank.  It’s an influence I’m more than happy to acknowledge.



Jasper Johns, 'Flag', Encaustic & Paper Collage On Canvas, 1954





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