'From The New School' Paintings At Rushey Mead Academy

All Images: 'From The New School 1, 4, 3, 6, 5, 2', Acrylic, Inkjet Print & Paper Collage, 2017.
Rushed Mead Academy (Teaching School), Leicester, September 2017

I regularly allude to my day job in a large Leicester Secondary School - possibly with a suggestion of ambivalence on occasions.  It’s not that I dislike my job at all – I couldn’t have stuck around for eleven years if that were the case.  It’s probably just that, like most amateur artists – I’m often slightly conflicted over the need to pay the bills, and the time taken up with that - when I might be producing art instead.

However, I’m pretty lucky really - not least with the people I work alongside on a daily basis, and the interest and encouragement they often express regarding my own creative endeavours.  My role as a Technician inevitably has its menial and routine aspects and, sadly - no one will ever get rich on the kind of wage it commands.  But the upside is, it still allows me the mental space to remain a creative entity.  And beyond that, I’m regularly invited to apply my subject knowledge to my dealings with teachers and students alike, and am generally encouraged to regard myself as an artist working within the faculty, rather than just “that guy wot cleans the paintbrushes”.  Another of the more rewarding aspects of my role is periodically being invited to contribute to enriching the school environment - something that has included a significant commission in recent years.  This post relates to the latest move in that direction.

I’ve already showcased the six existing pieces in my ‘From The NewSchool’ series (along with some of the thinking behind them), as they were produced earlier in the year.  Although work on the series has given way to other activities over the summer, It’s still very much a live project.  It’s definitely something to which I intend to return, and I envisage the series ultimately extending much further than it currently does.  However, for now, it was gratifying to be asked to display the existing panels on one of the school walls, on a kind of long-term loan arrangement.

This is all somewhat appropriate, given that each of the panels was actually produced on the premises, during lunch breaks and after hours.  As they also encapsulate certain possible questions about the purposes of, and theoretical justifications for education, it seems fitting that they should hang in the building housing the Teaching School arm of the overall Academy.  It’s also really useful for me to see them on a wall, in a quasi-exhibition context (and a pretty clean, white wall at that!).  Most artists will tell you it’s impossible to fully evaluate any piece of work until you’ve seen it trying to hold its own - out there in the world. 

I’ll conclude this post with the short information text that accompanies this hang.  Before I do so, I should also thank Head of Art, Tim Durham; and Jolan Woolridge, Leicester SCITT Director – and a teacher of Art in her own right.  Both proved keen advocates of the work, and were instrumental in pushing for its installation.

Hugh Marwood

Hugh completed a Degree in Fine Art at Bristol Polytechnic in 1984, and has worked as a Technician in Art and Design-Technology at Rushey Mead Academy, since 2016.  Much of his free time is devoted to producing his own artwork.  In 2015 he completed a major commission for the school, situated in the Art Dept.

‘From The New School’ Series

(L – R):  ‘Untitled (From The New School) 1, 4, 3, 6, 5, 2’ 

Acrylics, Inkjet Print & Paper Collage On Panel, 2017

The paintings by Hugh exhibited here, belong to an ongoing series, which also represents part of a collaboration with fellow Birmingham-based artist, Andrew Smith.  The intention is that each artist should periodically reinterpret or ‘remix’ a piece of work by the other.  The original inspiration here is Andrew’s painting, ‘The New School’ (2016).

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

                                                                           

Hugh has extracted Andrew’s central, motif, and plans to repeatedly reinterpret it within a standard compositional format - exploring a wide range of media, methods, and modes of depiction.  Each panel should suggest its own mood, or possible meanings.

The title, ‘The New School’, and the suggestion of architecture in each image, might relate to the ongoing processes of expansion and physical transformation imposed on many establishments like this one in recent years.  However, the shifting aesthetic within the series, may also reflect the ever-changing theoretical, philosophical, or political contexts in which Education must exist.  Each generation promotes new schools of thought regarding the value and purposes of Education, just as it erects new school buildings.

Hundreds of staff and students move through these buildings each day, as the structures and the systems operating within them, continue to evolve.  Perhaps the most important consideration should always be, “What is it all for?”

Completed Painting: 'Untitled (From The New School) 6'

'Untitled (From The New School) 6', Acrylics & Paper Collage On Panel,
30 cm X 30 cm X 106 mm, 2017

As I continue to juggle several discrete bodies of work, it feels like my main creative attention is increasingly falling on the nascent ‘ThisSkeptic/Sceptic Isle’ project, featured in a recent post.  But, of course, it would be far too straightforward to just maintain consistent focus this year - and so the small ‘From The New School’ panels continue simultaneously in the parallel.  Apologies if it’s hard to keep up with all this flip-flopping - I appreciate such compartmentalising may be far more interesting to me than to the casual spectator.  Sometimes, I even wonder if my need to ring-fence separate bodies of work doesn’t signify some kind of mild psychosis – or an unnecessarily over-developed search for order, at least.

In reality, alternating between these two projects may prove relatively achievable in coming weeks, not least as these little panels, at least, seem relatively quick to execute.  The strategy of working on them in my place of employment, in fleeting lunch breaks, or for an hour at the end of the working day, is proving a successful means of time management,  Having long since sorted out the basic compositional format, and by employing a deliberately synthetic and self-conscious mode of painting - it’s possible to make each painterly decision zone-by-zone in a pretty methodical fashion.  That’s an approach chosen initially for conceptual reasons, but one which also allows for a fortuitous ‘mask a bit – paint a bit – go home for tea (and repeat)’ routine.

Anyway, here’s the latest ‘Untitled (From The New School)’ Panel (No. 6).  Ironically, given the above observations, there was slightly more technical struggle than usual with this one – largely involving the treatment of the central ‘window’ zone.  Ultimately, that methodical approach proved a boon again though – allowing me to just keep masking and reworking until I arrived at some form of satisfactory conclusion.

My original plan was for this image to be somewhat more elaborate, but having paused for breath after getting things to this level - I realised ‘enough is enough’.  I looked, and looked again - before deciding its relative simplicity and sense of distillation are strengths rather than weaknesses, within the overall series to date.  It just reinforces the old artist’s truism about knowing when to stop.

Beyond that, my only other meaningful observation would relate to the visible textual elements.  Careful study will reveal they all derive from a single document, and that it makes specific reference to the thematic underpinnings of the project as a whole.  I now realise it marks the first time I’ve used collaged and repurposed text in quite such a pointed manner.

Completed Painting: 'Untitled (From The New School) 5'

'Untitled (From The New School) 5', Acrylic & Paper Collage On Panel,
30 cm X 30 cm X 106 mm, 2017

Here's the fifth in the 'Untitled (From The New School' series of small panels.  There's nothing particularly new to say about the motivations behind the series as a whole, so I'll refer anyone wanting to catch up here, here, here and here.

I'm rather enjoying this deliberate, highly synthetic mode of painting.  It's the antithesis of any heroic painterly 'struggle' (which suits me fine), and certainly allows me to produce them fairly quickly.  Any occasional insecurities I might feel about it all being too easy, or a bit too much of a production line, are dispelled by remembering that it's the series as a whole that will really constitute any final statement, and that each of these little paintings is as much a component of a composite entity, as anything overly profound in its own right.

As far as this particular iteration goes, the main thing to say is that it was just plenty of fun to paint.  It occurs to me that 'fun' is some thing artists (or painters, at least), often neglect to talk about.  We're much more used to hearing about artistic quandaries, existential despair, or just the frustrations of wrestling an image into some form of resolution (then deciding it's no good after all).  Is that to stave off any risk of this stuff seeming too frivolous or facile, I wonder?

But, really, what's so wrong about admitting the simple pleasures to be found in simply balancing a composition or laying-down colours, or in discovering that an educated guess or happy accident create something that just 'works'?  My hunch is that, if the underlying idea is strong enough, or the artist is sincere enough in their motivations, admitting to some joy in the physical realisation might signify a healthy creative process, at least as much as all that traditional angst [1.].

So I'm not going to pretend I didn't enjoy harnessing those areas of random collage or painterly gesture, in a deliberately 'knowing' manner.  The magic 'reveal' of peeling away masking tape never gets old, and  laying down that flat field of cadmium red - well, that was an unalloyed, sensual delight.  Sue me...



[1.]:  In this context, I'm reminded of songwriter/comedian, Tim Minchin, and his song, 'Dark Side'.  Minchin is a man who seems perfectly happy to balance the profound with the mechanics of showbiz (and clearly sees no conflict in producing quality work whilst drawing a salary from the Disney Corp.).  The intro. to this performance of 'Dark Side'/ underlines that this stuff is all just artifice anyway. 

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) 3'

'Untiled (From The New School) 3', Acrylic & Laser Print On Panel,
30 cm X 30 cm X 106 mm, 2017

Three's a crowd; but (in my mind, at least) it's also the point at which a group of closely-related artworks might be first thought of as a series.  Thus, I guess this new painting represents the an early fulfilment of my desire to produce a series of pieces in response to Andrew Smith's painting 'The New School'.

However, it really is just a beginning.  '4' is already in progress, with several more of these deep little panels made and waiting.  The intention is to produce a lot of these, at least whilst the inspiration and novelty prevail.  It's completely the wrong way to think, of course, but I can't help imagining a room with a whole procession of them around the walls.  That really is to put the cart before the horse though, so I'm just going to focus on one at a time, without putting any proposed final number on the series, until they (or I) run out of steam.

I've thought quite a bit about this tendency I have to work in groups or series just lately.  The reality is that, over the last few years, it's been increasingly rare for me to make a simple, self-contained statement, and simply let it stand on its merits independently.  This isn't the place to expound on the wider implications of that (and to any deeper psychological insights they may reveal) - not least because I haven't really come to any meaningful conclusions as yet.  However, don't be too surprised if I return to the theme in future posts.

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

'Untitled (From The New School) 1', Acrylic On Panel,
30 cm X 30 cm X 112 mm, 2017

'Untitled (From The New School) 2', Acrylic & Laser Print On Panel,
30 cm X 30 cm X 112 mm, 2017

As far as this individual piece goes, it's clear there is a little progression from its two predecessors, and it's worth mentioning that this synthetically 'pretty' colouration is a deliberate departure from the cooler-hued palette of both them and Andrew's original image.    It's also the first to incorporate some form of observed 'reality' - the implied window is now tacitly accepted as such. It was originally nothing more than two blocks of colour, but now includes simplified, references to the actual reflections in a glass curtain observed at my own workplace.  In other respects, we're still firmly in the territory of careful, formally precise painting here.  It's certainly not my intention that all of them will be that way though - and that appears to be changing even as I write this.  More soon... 

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