Pretty, Vacant 1

West Leicester, April 2020

Like most folks just now, I really value my occasional little trips out of the house under the guise of 'statuary exercise hours'.  Of course, regular circuits around my local environment, with bike and camera, have long been a part of my creative process - so little has changed there, really.  The bike is, by it's very nature, a kind of social-distancing device, and also allows me the opportunity to accelerate rapidly away from any potentially viral congregations I may encounter.  There also seems little harm in pausing for the occasional mini photo-shoot - providing I'm not impeding anyone else's isolated progress.  In certain situations, there's even some benefit in no longer having to wait for traffic or a crowd to disperse, before I can get my shot.  Whilst clearly unsustainable, and hardly a situation to be celebrated - some days it can almost feel like this crisis was designed for us slightly introspective flaneur types.

One (admittedly selfish) downside, is that the large construction sites I've been regularly visiting, in recent months, are largely at rest now.  On most sites, work has markedly slowed - if not ceased altogether, and there's a limit to how often even I can photograph the same unchanging chunk of steelwork, or expanse of unpopulated scaffolding.  The same old circuits can start to pale a bit too, when one is trying to combine a bit of much-needed exercise with equally vital mental/visual stimulation.

As a result, my latest excursions have seen me increasingly varying my routes, and the photographic subject matter has inevitably started to re-diversify as a result.  Except that, of course, the latest crop of images you see here, is still very representative of the kind of thing I've been drawn to all along - when not staring at building sites.  If anything, these blank windows and vacated commercial premises hark back to the stuff I was fixating on around 2016 - and which culminated in my contributions that year's 'A Minor Place' exhibition, with Andrew Smith and Shaun Morris.  My concerns at that time focussed on ideas of absence, vacancy, lost voices and forgotten meanings, and it all gave me massive scope to indulge my love of vestigal marks and emptied-out imagery.  The largely neutral palette of these shots seems to chime with that too.

'Untitled (Change of Use)', Mixed Media on Paper, 30 cm x 30 cm, 2016

'Vestige 5', Acrylics & Mixed Media on Panel, 60 cm x 60 cm, 2016

Central Leicester, April 2020

Back then, the regular evidence of such subject matter which I found in the field, seemed to represent the seemingly perpetual backwash of 2008's economic crash, and the ideology of Austerity that persisted in its wake.  In the context of this latest catastrophe (Capitalist, or otherwise), such motifs seem to acquire a renewed relevance.  It's always tempting to think one should be working with great urgency, on some definitive new response to any major societal event - but it occurs to me, there is a danger such actions can end up feeling hastily conceived or insufficiently digested.  Perhaps then, it's just as valid to dig out existing work, to check whether some new relevance may have accrued, whilst reflecting on events as they unfold.  If nothing else, it might be instructive to shift a few boxes, and have another look... 

Completed Painting: 'Untitled (From The New School) 4'

'Untitled (From The New School) 4', Acrylic & Paper Collage On Panel,
30 cm X 30 cm X 106 mm, 2017

Here then, is ‘Untitled (From The New School) 4’.  These little paintings seem to be coming fairly thick and fast and, as already mentioned, it’s pleasing to have something tangible to show for several months of groundwork (on several projects), but relatively few actual ‘outcomes’.

I’ve come to dislike that O-word with a mild passion, over the years, - associating it with the edu-babble of theoretical jargon that besets the school system.  It’s not an objection to the idea of something tangible resulting from all that investment of effort by teachers and learners alike (tick), but possibly something to do with the current assumption that it must always be predictable and measurable.  However, in this context, it actually feels highly appropriate.  As the title of this painting series suggests, an oblique reflection on various competing ideologies and theoretical frameworks at play within education, is an overarching theme within this work, (‘overarching’ – tick, there’s another one).

 

Andrew Smith, 'The New School', Acrylic & Digital Print On Canvas, 2016

As also previously mentioned, all this was ignited by the evocative title of Andrew Smith’s painting ‘The New School’.  However I also earn my daily corn in a supporting role in a secondary school which has, in recent years - been extensively remodeled under the BSF  programme [1.], reinvented itself as a Teaching School [2.], and become the flagship of an expanding Academy chain [3.].  The rate of systemic change I’ve observed bemusedly from the sidelines, over the last decade, has been breathtaking.  It seems inevitable therefore, that there’s something of a personal, as well as a theoretical resonance to all this.

It’s now clear that the distinctly architectural motif from Andrew’s original painting is becoming a repeat-carrier for a series of consciously selected modes of painting, as the series develops.  The idea is that this might imply, in a non-specific sense, the imposition of different theoretical, philosophical and political orthodoxies upon institutionalised schooling, over the decades.  I’m old enough to remember the scrapping of the ‘11-Plus’ system, to have been educated in a purpose-built 70s Comprehensive, (and to have been surprisingly committed to the ideals it espoused – even at that tender age), and to now witness the imposition of an ever more rigid business model, and talk of a return to selective schooling.  I feel moderately qualified to comment, if only on the grounds of age alone, (“I’ve seen ‘em come, and I’ve seen ‘em go…”etc.).

The first three panels display a gentle progression through a distinctly sunny mode of hard-edged depiction, which could suggest a kind of utopian optimism – but equally, a bland, PR-driven corporatism, I suppose. In ‘4’ however, things seem to have taken a somewhat more dystopian turn.  In fact, it’s actually a return to the largely monochrome, hybrid form of painting/collage that characterised last year’s ‘Vestige’ paintings.  If that evolved in a fairly organic manner previously - here it’s been employed more consciously as another potential ‘style’, in accord with the greater intentionality of this current series.

If this is a revisiting of the ‘Vestige’ aesthetic, it’s illuminating to recall that it was also incorporated into the ground of Andrew’s ‘The New School’ piece.  Indeed, this whole process began following a proposal that we should enter into an on-going process of reinterpreting or reworking each other.  It seems then that, in this latest painting, not only am I in conscious dialogue with Andrew’s work, but also my own.

'Vestige 2', Acrylics, paper Collage, Adhesive Tape, Ink, Spray Enamel & Misc. Solvents On Panel,
60 cm X 60 cm, 2016

There’s one last point worthy of note – relating to the modest scale of these panels, and the methodical manner of their production.  To date, each one has actually been produced in installments on school premises, during my lunch breaks, or at the end of the working day.  That situation arises out of logistical convenience, rather than any deliberate strategy – but it does mean that aside from their inspiration, these paintings are quite literally ‘From The New School’.



[1.]: 'Building Schools For The Future':  The most recent concerted attempt to renew Britain's school infrastructure in recent years.  Begun under the previous Labour administration, and continued by the Tories.  Many new builds have certainly been carried out - although exactly to what standard is debatable.  Some have questioned its apparent role in diverting vast sums of much-needed public money into private hands.

[2.]:  Similar to a Teaching Hospital - in that an institution aims to become a centre of excellence in training new teachers at the same time as educating children.  Whilst the undoubted pressure-cooker effect of a one-year PGCE-type course still apply, there would certainly appear to be some valuable synergies under this model.

[3.]:  Current political orthodoxy decrees that rapidly-expanding consortiums of increasingly autonomous educational institutions should assume the role once played by local government in the provision of state education.  The pros and cons of this are complex and way beyond the scope of this blog post.  Suffice it to say, cynics might argue that certain business imperatives must surely win-out over democratic or utopian ideals, under such a model - to some extent at least.  Proponents doubtless see this as no problem at all.

Completed Painting: 'Untitled (From The New School) 2'

'Untitled (From The New School) 2', Acrylic & Paper Collage On Panel,
30 cm X 30 cm X 106 mm, 2017

Here's the second in the 'From The New School' series of small panels.  The rationale behind these can be read here.  suffice it to say, this new one already shows a small degree of controlled evolution, in terms of handling and media.

'Untitled (From The New School) 1', Acrylic On Panel, 30 cm X 30 cm X 106 mm, 2017

At a time when my creative energies are diffused  across numerous projects, these are providing a pleasing diversion into methodical, small-scale painting.  Everything here is very deliberate and controlled - not least the recourse to the purpose-generated collage elements.  It's all something of an antidote to the  painterly freedom and random collaging of last year's 'Vestige' paintings - even if the recourse to overall formal geometry is still evident.

'Vestige 3', Acrylics, Paper Collage, Ink & French Polish On Panel, 60 cm X 60 cm, 2016

Completed Painting: 'Vestige 2'

'Vestige 2', Acrylics, Paper Collage, Adhesive Tape, Ink, Spray Enamel & Misc. Solvents On Panel,
60 cm X 60 cm, 2016

By the standards of my own habitually slow-but-steady work rate, and the necessary hours and energy spent earning a living, two paintings a month is pretty good going for me.  Thus, it is with some satisfaction that I can reveal the second ‘proper’ painting I managed to complete in January.  It does feel like my stated desire to push on with a little more urgency again is starting to bear fruit.  After a relatively placid few months, and an ongoing period of making mental connections, sifting ideas, and laying putative plans, I seem to be getting my creative ducks into some kind of orderly row.  The appearance of the first tangible artifacts is always an exciting stage in a new phase of work, and one that signifies that the boulder is at least now rolling - hopefully to pick up further momentum in the coming months.

'Vestige 2', (Detail)

'Vestige 2', (Detail)

Anyway, ‘Vestige 2’ is, predictably enough, the second in what I hope will become a substantial series of related paintings - all utilising the same, basic, empty-rectangle-motif-within-a-square format.  I’ve already discussed the origins and possible associations of these clean patches or ‘ghost spaces’ as I’m already, rather portentously starting to think of them, - and there’s little more to add to my initial thoughts at this stage.

 

'Vestige 1', Acrylics, Paper Collage, Ink, Spray Enamel, French Polish &
Misc. Solvents On Panel, 60 cm X 60 cm, 2016

In terms of general appearance, - ‘2’, clearly picks up where ‘1’ left off, although it did actually resemble a rather different painting in the earlier stages of its slightly uncooperative gestation.  Whilst it’s pleasing to have wrestled this one into some form of submission, it does feel important that the series should display slightly more variation as it progresses - if only to avoid mindlessly producing fifty shades of mid grey.  ‘The same - but different’ is a key concept with these - as already outlined, providing ‘but different’ is given equal weight across the whole piece.  With future paintings, it may be necessary to deliberately hold back a little, to allow certain paintings' awkward earlier stages to stand, or to resist my habit of tightening all the nuts and bolts - to enable this.

North Leicester, November 2015

Sneinton Market, Nottingham, April 2014

For now, there is at least some subtle evolution in the final appearance of ‘2’, and, if nothing else – a recognition that, when observed on the street, these ghostly rectangles, signifying obsolete missives and lost meanings, are marked by frames of tape residue, as often as by closed fields. Whilst the general range of techniques employed is pretty much as before, I think it’s fair to say there’s slightly more variation in the nature of marks made here, and that whispers of vestigial text are rather more in evidence. 

'Untitled', Acrylics, Paper Collage, Adhesive Tape, Ink & Spray Enamel On Paper,
30 cm X 30 cm, 2015

It's also fairly obvious that the final painting is pretty closely related to another of the small, paper-based studies that I made before the turn of the year.  Those have proved a pretty useful tool in kicking things off in 2016, although I imagine future steps in this particular series may take their inspiration as much from certain photographic references, or simply evolve out of each other, as things unfold.   

'Vestige 2', (Detail)

Mostly, I just want to just crack on with the next one as soon as possible.  Indeed, there’s a panel, all assembled and sanded, in the back bedroom - as I write.  There are also various other related project strands I want to get moving in the coming weeks, so it’s possible that two more of these in February may be a little ambitious.  However, if ‘two’s a couple’, three is definitely a series - and one which hopefully will have become self-perpetuating by the end of February.

'Vestige 2', (Detail)