Completed Paintings: 'space_time_01 [Le Temps]' & 'space_time_02 [Wood Gate]'

 

'space_time_01 [Le Temps]', Acrylics, Paint Pen, Paper Collage, Screen Print Fragments,
Ink, Ball-Point Pen & French Polish on Panel, 300 mm x 300 mm, 2023

Demands on my time and attention (from various directions), along with repeated bouts of minor ill-health, both intensified and multiplied towards the end of this year - making a degree of conscious time-management increasingly necessary. My choice has been largely to prioritise the continued production of new work over such distractions as social media and the like, with what spare time/energy remain. While the imperative to tell the world about my every move may have dwindled to the point where I currently experience regular impertinent/impatient elbow jogs from Instagram, there's some satisfaction in maintaining the generation of what I still regard as the real (i.e. physical) 'content'. 

Anyway, the festive period, and accompanying educational pause for breath, allow for a little end-of-year catch-up. 2023 ends with a clutch of modestly sized, multi-media panels in play, with the two shown here being the first to reach resolution.

These pieces originate in the same small zone of Leicester that has inspired a slowly-expanding body of work over the last couple of years. The general desire to connect specific, mapped territory, through time, with numerous layers of possible meaning and narrative has long been a constant in my work. It's also fair to say that some of the motifs, as well as the general collaged mixed-media approach adopted here, are hardly unfamiliar either. What does feel like an advancement is the increasingly oblique, intuitive, or simply impetuous, manner in which  mental/emotional/associative lines of flight are triggered by my repeated passage through certain points on the map. The intention is to allow this particular rhizome to continue to entangle itself through these little panels as 2023 turns the corner into 2024.

'space_time_02' [Wood Gate]', Acrylics, Paint Pen, Paper Collage, Screen Print Fragments, 
Ink, Ball-Point Pen & French Polish on Panel, 300 mm x 300 mm, 2023

Completed Painting: 'Untitled (From The New School ) 17'

'Untitled (From The New School) 17', Acrylics & Adhesive Stars on Panel, 
300 mm x 300 mm x 106 mm, 2023

Here’s another recently completed ‘From The New School’ painting. The overall rationale behind this series was explained long ago and can be read elsewhere.  Suffice it to say, each one is intended to reflect some specific aspect of, or set of assumptions about, institutionalised education in visual/stylistic terms. In some cases, the focus has been relatively specific. In others, the themes are possibly a little more more generalised (or just based on my own intuitive responses to another day spent earning a crust on the school premises). Clearly, each one also acts as an opportunity to consciously try my hand at a different aesthetic trope or method of application (even if most revert to some form of hard-edged formalism by default).

 

In this case, the intention was to cheerfully embrace a form of kitsch, 1960s-style Pop naivety, possibly reminiscent of ‘Yellow Submarine’ or George Harrison’s clumsily-painted ‘Rocky’ guitar. Competing colours were juxtaposed on a whim, and masking of straight edges deliberately avoided. Brushwork showed little regard for surface refinement, and the general attitude was one of ‘if in doubt – stick something else in’ (including fluorescents, pearlescents and sparkly stars).

Harder rock sounds and Glam stomping had long since replaced lysergic nursery rhymes in the charts by the time I began my own secondary school career in the mid '70s . However, It's fair to say that some wistful memory of the psychedelic late 60’s (including a degree of vestigial utopianism) still lingered on in diluted form. That all seems a very long time ago, but even now, I  sometimes detect a whiff of incense and peppermints in some of the New-Agey ‘wellness’ agendas that have appeared in education of late, as a constrained attempt at strategic stress-relief. I’m also regularly surprised just how persistently a quaint, untutored primary-school sensibility lingers amongst many of our teenage charges - even as our harassed teachers struggle to instil the principles of colour-theory, composition and ‘The Formal Elements of Art’ in the limited time available to them.

 

Groovy (man)!

Quicksilver Communication [trans_late/re_configure]

 

All Original Images: Central Leicester, August 2023. Photo Manipulations: October 2023

[Appropriated/Translated/Reconfigured Texts]:

Because the planet is so close to the Sun, daytime temperatures can reach highs of 800°F (430°C). Without an atmosphere to retain that heat at night, temperatures can dip as low as -290°F (-180°C). At such temperatures the tenacity value obtained for the metals of low melting point is affected by the duration of the test (due to ‘the creep’). Supercomputers (such as those at the Met. Office) solve complex mathematical equations based on well-established physical laws to model the behaviour of the weather and climate. However, outcomes that are not measured cannot be counted, evaluated or upheld, and it’s little wonder if you struggle to know who or what to trust. The consequences are real: democracy is threatened and, in some extreme cases, civil unrest and even armed conflict erupt. The concept of spirit is far less familiar to most and the sense of isolation in a fragmented world pervades all corners of the community. We all yearn for connection. Many people use the words 'soul' and 'spirit' interchangeably. Some use the word ‘spirit’ as a synonym for ‘ghost’, but neither is applicable in this context.

A place with a strong sense of community spirit is somewhere with high levels of interaction, trust and shared standards of behaviour that enable people to build communities and to knit-together the social fabric. Generally speaking, when someone doesn't stick to the terms of a contract, or a guy shows up two hours late - or forgets to pay his phone bill on time, we don't brutally kill that person in the town square. These rules reduce handling and transportation requirements for wastes that otherwise would need to be managed as ‘dumps’ - but greenhouse gases produced by human activity are altering this cycle beyond natural variation. One of the biggest challenges for local economies is not the lack of attractions, but a lack of vision. Right now the mood is the lowest I have ever known it, and even the humble thermometer is gradually being phased out in favour of a digital instrument or a thermistor-based gadget.

 

The problematic identification of some substances, and their dubious experimental role, led us to wonder whether the choices of ingredients were not only based on technical factors but also influenced by cultural aspects. From the contractual history (and in the associated images), we can see that a wide variety of alchemical goals were pursued. The problem is that the number of cases of mining digital currency remains hidden. We all lead busy lives, and inevitably tend to live in silos, so the only assumption made is that of the form of the distribution function for the velocities in the electron swarm. Ancient alchemical procedures have been transmitted over centuries as written instructions (and copied onto manuscripts hundreds of times by scribes), but they can still predict large-scale changes in global climate in the future. Machine shackles are fitted with low-conductive ebonite cone seatings, which will enforce a code of conduct for Big Tech to ensure advertising deals are struck on fairer terms.

IMPORTANT: Following exposure to any chemical, the adverse health impacts you may encounter depend on several factors. Crucial details can easily pass unnoticed, or may even be misinterpreted when recipes are considered only in their textual dimension. It is increasingly recognised that cultural and community participation can act as an important health asset, and that the spirit is a sort of medium for transmission and communication. Put-on disposable gloves IMMEDIATELY before cleaning spills. Each piece of broken glass should be carefully removed and double-bagged.

Completed Painting: 'The Castle/Le Grand Hotel 4'

 

'The Castle/Le Grand Hotel 4', Acrylics, Paint Pen, Paper Collage, Ink, Watercolour,
French Polish, Spray Enamel on Panel,  60 cm x 60 cm, 2023

The focus shifts back to my own East Midlands back yard once again. This is the most-recently completed of what I currently regard as my ‘Great Central’ pieces. That’s just a working title really (nominally indicating the small parcel of territory under consideration) - which is perhaps reflective of my current attempts to work in a more fluid, non-committal or less compartmentalised way. 

 

Discretely labelled sub-series have already emerged under this umbrella, but the seepage of themes and motifs between them is considerable. Connections and layered narratives coalesce in a hopefully more rhizomorphic fashion (in the Deluzian sense), and while certain geographical/mental cartographies are both delineated and pinned - I reserve the right to take any unfamiliar diversion, be it through space or time (observed or imagined), as intuition dictates. This naturally renders any attempt at linear or coherent analysis pretty difficult. One plus-point of this change of orientation (in my mind - at least), is a side-stepping of customary attempts to over-explain things to both myself and others, down the years. Stylistic tropes and subject categories may still appear reasonably familiar, but I genuinely believe that the underlying logics in the work are a little more organically cultivated nowadays. It’s no coincidence that this is the first time I’ve showcased one of these pieces alongside anything other than a wilfully obscure fragment of 'experimental' text. I only do so now as I’m a bit between such ‘bits’, and these pics have been waiting around for a little while.

 

Anyway, for what it’s worth - the imagery here may or may not relate to:

 

• A complex of local hotel and office buildings, erected as part of the redevelopment of a significant tract of central Leicester, viewed across the river Soar and an intervening construction site (sometime in 2021).

• The vaguely similar architectural massing of Prague’s Castle complex, viewed across the river Vltava (sometime in the 1990s, whilst on a somewhat intoxicated holiday of my own).

• Kafka’s great, unfinished novel (important – that), ‘The Castle’, with its deeply unsettling account of a stranger profoundly lost in an unfamiliar land. [1.]

• Marcel Proust’s unreliable memories of teenage holidays spent at Le Grand-Hotel in Balbec/Combray, and his (highly subjective – possibly delusional) attempts to become reconciled with a lost personal history. [2.]

• The printed pages and digital frames of mediation/mapping which might allow us to travel through space and time, in order to unlock any of these spaces at will, and in any chosen configuration.

• The nature of mediation, and the (welcome) unexpected resonances which may occur when a narrative or image is misunderstood, misheard, or unsatisfactorily resolved.

• The sheer coincidence of simply reading a certain text (possibly on a whim), at the time a particular photograph or painting is being made.

 

There’s plenty to un-pick there, so hopefully, it’s enough to be going on with…

[1.]:  Franz Kafka, 'The Castle', London, Penguin Modern Classics, 1922/2030/2015

[2.]:  Marcel Proust, 'In The Shadow of Young Girls in Flower', ('In Search of Lost Time' Vol 2), London, Penguin Classics, 1919/2003.

'The Basin': Speed Of Light [Draft 1.0]

 

All Images: Brunel Way, Southwest Bristol, April - August 2023

Above the Basin, the flow rate intensifies into a rapid pulse. When electric and magnetic fields change in time, they interact to produce a travelling electromagnetic wave, measured in the blip of auto-glass. The speed of light is, of course, just one of several ‘fundamental’ or ‘universal’ physical constants. These are believed to apply to the entire universe and to remain fixed over time. The switch-gear remains visible, despite an overall film of degradation. Multi-axles hammer and the deck shivers through our soles. The spectrum shifts and shuddering loads are subjected to competing forces - augmented by an attendant menu of sound-events. In the description there is a link to create that inevitable trance sound. How busy can it get?

Light, noise and emissions dictate the micro-climate on this level. It is an arena in which quantum fluctuations produce evanescent energies and elementary particles - ‘deteriorating at a significant rate’. Sediment and hydrocarbons are driven into the observer’s face. Rubber granulates. Sheets of hiss shift over the clattered repeat and sirens dopple through the roar. Backlit clouds fray, releasing dazzling shards to slice off inclined glass and sculpted contours. Light from different directions must have different speeds, which should be detected by measuring the return speed. Standing water is atomised and the vehicles diffuse into a sprayed miasma. As redshift moves toward the observer, then a blue shift will be observed. Filthy waves and occasional small components are hurled to the margins. If the wave source moves toward the observer then the person will feel the frequency of the water wave is increasing. In the afternoon, traffic levels two and a half times higher re-emerge from a barrage of heat, onto desiccating tarmac.

The filters employ opportunism and no little jeopardy. You need to imagine a car driving on a huge flat surface. You need to imagine that the car can only move at one speed - say, 60 miles per hour or so. Such moments are seized without forgiveness, and coupled with ongoing road-water and gritting salt ingress. Tolerances are severely tested. The bridge consists of a considerable number of inherent high-risk construction design features, which include post-tensioning or half-joints, and tendons in box-beam bottoms. The car lobby, of course, shudder at the idea. The comments fill up with metrics, snobbery or hate mail (some days it will easily reach six figures). Why do they have those particular values? What do they really tell us about the physical reality around us?

Supply chains are clearly indicated. These short-lived phenomena might seem to be a ghostly form of reality but they do have measurable effects, including electromagnetic ones. The imperative is headlong and adjusting time (beating the barriers and the occasional swing). It had to be included to prompt the behaviour change necessary for the entire project to work. The orange gates stand retracted as logistical solutions serve your sheet material needs. Events are catered and parcels forced. Prime packaging is serviced by an outsourced procession, causing an accelerated depreciation of the network. Elevated commerce cuts across the tidal trades. The wave speed change is actually caused by the absolute movements in the global reference frame. If we put another wave source below the observer - and let them move together at the same speed perspective, the two waves coming from two different directions should have the same frequency. Buses shuttle to marginal estates (in different directions at various different times), and while that happens there will be a ‘reference group’ which will bring in local people. We stand at an organ of admittance. The city consumes and evacuates, upscales and downsizes, deploys and discharges.

Different centuries were stripped into the map here, but the plan already accelerates towards ‘catastrophic failure’. Urban colleagues had to make some unsupported assumptions. Concerns included issues with elastomeric and roller structural bearings and expansion joints between all elevated structural deck areas, ineffective waterproof membranes throughout all bridge deck areas, and a sub-standard parapet system. Alternate futures falter - and are now deteriorating at a significant rate, as exorbitant remedies are threatened. These possibilities are entertaining to think about, and they might well be real in adjacent universes - but still the central issue remains. Time drains into the Basin and the universe is an infinite test. Everything is quite paradoxical and therefore impossible. Attachments to the crescent and the garden-centre remain strong (anthropic reasoning might well suffice to explain why). On both the Eastern Approach option and the Western Approach, the largest number of answers to the questions were that the plans would be ‘worse’.

Completed Painting: 'Untitled (From The New School) 16'

All Images: 'Untitled (From The New School) 16', Card, Texture Paste, Sand, Concrete Effect Paint,
Acrylics, Ink Spray Enamel & Digital Print on Panel, 300 mm x 300 mm x 106 mm, 2023

It's quite a while since I made one of these 'From The New School' paintings, but I still regard the series, and indeed - the overall project to which they relate, as being active. It's certainly one of my more extended endeavours at this stage. However, I remain dependant on employment in the education sector for my daily bread, and so still find myself ruminating on different aspects of that world on a regular basis. The overall rational behind the series can be found elsewhere, so I'll simply direct anyone requiring the back-story here.

Fairly obviously, this particular iteration of an oft-repeated (and originally appropriated) motif relates to the crisis over defective/hazardous concrete construction techniques in British schools, which gained news traction over this summer. Appropriately enough, the media used in this one are the most substantial and textural of the whole series. Collage and mixed-media techniques do  feature in many of it's predecessors - to be sure, but this one is essentially a painted relief as much as it is anything else. 

Having reached No.16 in the run, I'm starting to wonder about the possibility of drawing a line under things at 20. It ought to be possible to come up with four more versions without becoming totally repetitious - I'd have thought. At that point, maybe I could even make some attempt to go properly public with them. It could be genuinely instructive to see the entire series together in one place, after all this time - I suspect. 

An achievable aspiration for 2024, perhaps?