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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…
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| 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.
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Untitled:
Acrylics, Paper Collage, Ink, Spray Enamel, French Polish On Paper,
40 cm X 60 cm, 2017
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| 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.
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Untitled:
Acrylics, Paper Collage, Ink, Spray Enamel, French Polish On Paper,
40 cm X 60 cm, 2017
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| 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’.
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Untitled:
Acrylics, Paper Collage, Ink, Spray Enamel, French Polish On Paper,
40 cm X 60 cm, 2017
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| 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?
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Untitled:
Acrylics, Paper Collage, Ink, Spray Enamel, French Polish On Paper,
40 cm X 60 cm, 2017
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| 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’.
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Untitled:
Acrylics, Paper Collage, Ink, Spray Enamel, French Polish On Paper,
40 cm X 60 cm, 2017
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| 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.
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| West Leicester, April 2017 |
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| North Leicester, April 2017 |
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| 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.
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| Jasper Johns, 'Flag', Encaustic & Paper Collage On Canvas, 1954 |
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