Reflections On 'Stolen Car'

Shaun Morris' Stolen Car' Exhibition has just entered its second week at Rugby Art Gallery & Museum.  I'd encourage you to take a look while it's still on display, if you can get there.  I went over myself with my friend Dave for Shaun's Private View last week.  I'd seen some of these motorway paintings before but it was great to view them together as a set and to catch up with Shaun and the other Indigo Octagon guys, Andy Smith and Chris Cowdrill at the same time.

I've been interested to learn just how emotionally connected Shaun is to these paintings on his own blog.  It's all too easy to plunge into intellectual debate over the formal properties or cultural context of an artwork but easy to forget that, often, an artist's motivations are deeply personal.

Anyway, having already tried to raise a bit of awareness about the show, here are a few of my own reflections on the actual paintings…

Shaun Morris, 'Silence' (L & C), 'Journey's End' (R), Oil On Canvas, 2012

• The 'Stolen Car' suite is obviously about 'place' and most obviously about the disregarded or despised marginal locations that our highly developed, modern world increasingly generates.

• Such places are romantically named 'Edgelands' today.  They might just as easily be labelled as fringe destinations; transitional zones; arenas of vacancy; cartographical gaps; breathing spaces; underworlds.  Morris' painted world is quite literally an example of the latter.

• Planners, politicians, marketeers and generators of wealth don't intend we should waste time dwelling on the spaces beneath motorways, industrial estates, car parks and the fringes of housing estates.  Artists, thinkers, romantics and anyone looking for a place to step off the treadmills of life, explore them for exactly that reason.

• These nocturnes are submerged in the sickly amber glow of street lighting.  Sometimes it shines directly in our faces or forms satellites overhead. It makes the air thick and slow but is completely modern. The World becomes orange and violet; drained of naturalism; hallucinatory.  The planet has never looked like this before in its entire history.

Shaun Morris, 'Silence' (Triptych), Oil On Canvas, 2012

• The carriageways are hoisted overhead on a forest of concrete supports.  We can only imagine the lives that fly through the light up there; insulated by speed; fleeting; moving through a transitory parallel dimension.  We know them only through traffic noise.  They remain oblivious to our very existence.  You can skate across the map but remain disconnected from life on the surface.

• We project ourselves into the zones depicted, drawn along a minor road or across a threadbare field; between the uprights framing the view beyond; through light and into pools of dense, inky shadow.  Those shadow shapes become solid and hard edged, integrated into the architecture of both concrete and composition.  They flatten and formalize.  Positive and negative become reversed.  In these pictures we must find nuance in the light.  Dark tones are definitive and impassive. 

• Should we fear to linger here? What cut-throat jeopardy might lurk in those shadows?  Or, is this a refuge; a place of solitude and reflection; somewhere to dream and mourn the dead?  Maybe we must endure some level of threat to find respite.  Perhaps neither thoughts nor deeds are policed down here.

Shaun Morris, 'Memories', Oil On Canvas, 2102

• These paintings reveal a world of concrete and steel; of fences and electricity.  But it is full of leaves too.  Trees and bushes mitigate hard-edged geometry.  A screen of branches fragments the motorway's parapet in a near-abstract painting all about the mediation of pattern.  In another, a desiccated clump dominates the foreground.  Rapid brush marks flicker in the gloom, as though caught in camera’s flash.

Shaun Morris, 'Weird Nightmare', Oil On Canvas, 2012

• In a dramatic canvas of angular futurism, Morris looks up at the underside of our modern world.  In the narrow gap between carriageways he finds infinity, bizarrely in a ribbon of bright orange.

Shaun Morris, 'The Gap', Oil On Canvas, 2012

• The painter depicts a solemn realm of rooted pillars and static structure but he works rapidly.  His brush hurries on with an urgency to depict.  Eye and mind might linger but his hand does not.  Distant painted columns lean forward, as if on the march.

• After repeated viewings, a pale, lonely horse emerges; paddocked amongst columns and pylons; grazing at the edge of the Modern Age. (Morris recounts being mistaken for a Horse Welfare official, - how often do artists face suspicion in the field?).  Can an equine brain encompass modernity?   I remember a visionary motif - the unicorn from Scott's 'Blade Runner'.

Shaun Morris, 'Silence' (Detail Of Central Panel), Oil On Canvas, 2012

• I think too of Edward Hopper with his commitment to representation and his willingness to describe modernity.  Hopper also loved the city at night under artificial illumination; found detachment and melancholy in implied solitude. 

• Here at the edge of things; beneath a main artery; where Second City bleeds into Western Marches, Shaun Morris comes home.  With Springsteen running through his head he hears the romance of the road.  He finds poetry in concrete and meaning in a forgotten land.

Shaun Morris' 'Stolen Car' exhibition will remain on display at Rugby Art Gallery & Museum until 22 February 2013.

Shaun Morris, 'Stolen Car'

January is a memory, the snow's all melted but the snowdrops are in full effect.  As I write, the sun's lighting up the street outside my window and it feels like 2013 might soon start waking up properly.  We've still got February to navigate, and these days the weather can astonish us at any time, but this month always feels like a shorter haul and, last time I looked, the planet still goes in only one direction.

It feels like time to get out and about a bit more and visiting a few exhibitions in the near future is a priority.  One of these will be 'Stolen Car', - an exhibition of paintings by my friend Shaun Morris which opens soon in Rugby.  Regular readers will know I exhibited some paintings alongside Shaun and the other members of the Indigo Octagon collective in Birmingham last November.  That show included several of his nocturnal paintings of the world beneath the elevated M5 motorway to the west of Birmingham.  I know the show's title reflects Shaun's love of Bruce Springsteen so perhaps the M5 is his very own 'Thunder Road'.  In Rugby, he'll be exhibiting the whole series and I'm looking forward to seeing them all together.  

Paintings By Shaun Morris  (L & C) At 'If A Picture Paints A Thousand
Words Then Why Can't I Paint' Exhibition, Birmingham, 2013

Shaun Morris, 'Stolen Car' Painting, Oil On Canvas, 2012

Shaun Morris, 'Stolen Car' Painting,
Oil On Canvas, 2012

The following is from Shaun's press release for the show...

"The work on display represents the artist's first serious collection of landscape painting, and reflect his interest in depicting the so called 'edgelands': the forgotten, overlooked, nowhere zones that exist between the city or town and the countryside.  Feeling and experience are held in these vivid images that represent an individual and personal vision from this emerging artist, and his close relationship to this rarely represented landscape." [1.]

Whilst Shaun's paintings focus on the M5, Birmingham is completely girded by Motorways.  He has, on occasion, also found himself below the renowned Spaghetti Junction, north of the city.  I found myself in that same bizarre underworld of concrete and canals beneath the M6 a few weeks ago and can understand exactly why he became fascinated by the unique atmosphere and experiences to be had in such places.  Without wanting to steal Shaun's thunder, I hope to post some of my own photographs of the subject here fairly soon.  Here are two to be going on with...

The 'Stolen Car' Exhibition can be seen at Floor One Gallery, Rugby Art Gallery & Museum, between Saturday 9th February and Friday 22nd February.  You can read more on the Indigo Octagon Facebook page and see many of the paintings in various posts on Shaun's blog.  Rugby also lies adjacent to a motorway (M1), and is on a main rail line, so it's easy to get there.  I'd urge you to go to see the work for real.

[1.]: Press Release for 'Stolen Car, New Paintings By Shaun Morris', Floor One Gallery, Rugby Art Gallery & Museum, 2013

If A Picture Paints A Weekend Away...

Rather than rushing back to Leicester after the Friday night private view of the ‘If a Picture Paints…’ exhibition, I made a weekend of it in Birmingham.  It allowed me to revisit the gallery on the Saturday and reflect further on the work and the exhibition experience as a whole.  It also provided an opportunity to celebrate my close friend Susie's birthday in a different city, and to explore some of the photo opportunities I suspected were lurking in the Digbeth area near the gallery.  The luxury of a big bed and leisurely hotel breakfasts were an attraction too.

Work By: (L-R), Shaun Morris, Andrew Smith, Chris Cowdrill & Andrew Smith

Two Of My Paintings With Work By: (L-R), Andrew Smith, Shaun Morris
& Andrew Smith

Still Life Paintings By Shaun Morris

Work By: (L-R), Andrew Smith, Shaun Morris & Andrew Smith

Friday was all about the buzz of the exhibition as an event, but Saturday demonstrated it can still be difficult to coax people into a gallery under normal conditions, however diligently you publicise it.  If only a trickle of people found their way in that day, I still think it was right to opt for a weekend opening and can’t fault the collective effort to raise awareness of the show.  The Works gallery is a good space and suited the exhibition well but, being on the third floor of an old industrial building, must struggle for passing trade.  I guess the lure of Brum’s extensive retail honey pot nearby was always going to provide severe competition too.

Ceramic Piece By Craig Underhill, (Foreground), With Work By: (L-R),
Myself, Andrew Smith & Chris Cowdrill

Ceramic Work By Craig Underhill

Nonetheless, it was good to spend more time with the work, to chat to Shaun and Andrew again and get to know Chris a little better.  I appreciated seeing how the work appeared with some daylight illumination too.  Andrew’s paintings, which had seemed quite muted the previous evening, started to sing next to the large gallery window as surprising amounts of colour seeped out from their accumulations of visual incident.   I was drawn to make comparisons with my own paintings’ more overt, on-the-surface garishness.

Paintings By Andrew Smith

My Paintings 'Home 1' (L) And 'Broken 1' (R)

My Painting 'Shut 1'

I like what Indigo Octagon are trying to do as a collective and am convinced that artists gathering together to provide their own support mechanisms and shared energy is a canny strategy in these days of increasing financial and cultural poverty.  I chatted with Chris about the potential for different projects under the same banner to involve varying combinations or degrees of involvement from core members whilst drawing in outside collaborators as appropriate.  It works well enough for musicians, (Massive Attack being an obvious established model), so why not artists?  I was encouraged to meet a group for whom the main priority appears to be the work, with everything else seemingly just about maximizing the chances of it reaching an engaged audience.  In a hollow, P.R. driven culture, where every dream is retailed back to us, the value of encountering reasonably like-minded people is incalculable.

Paintings By Shaun Morris

Earlier, I had wended my way slowly to Pershore Street via the seriously dilapidated industrial back streets of Digbeth.  The streets I traversed are dominated by massive brooding railway arches which, as Andrew pointed out, lend them a slightly Gothic, or even De Chirico-esque, quality.   During my short walk I encountered numerous good examples of urban text, decaying surfaces and general entropy.  I’m sure I only scratched the surface(s) and intend to return for more photo-perambulations very soon.

Surfaces And Texts, Digbeth, Birmingham

The day concluded with a meal and drinks with my friends and a chance to marvel at the apparent 'last days of the Roman Empire' unfolding on Broad Street.  A real find for me was ‘The Yardbird’, tucked in next to the municipal library.  Somewhere between a bar and a club, this intimate venue revealed itself to have a very happening vibe with lounge décor, an open minded crowd and excellent Jazz/Funk/Soul/Hip-hop sounds.  Full marks go to the proprietors for pitching the P.A volume perfectly too.  It’s good to know my arthritic knees still permit occasional dancing even if my Sunday morning head doesn’t like me drinking!

Private View: If A Picture Paints A Good Night Out...

My last post mentioned how various events in Birmingham have been occupying my time just lately.  Prime amongst these was the private view for the exhibition, ‘If a Picture Paints a Thousand Words, Why Can’t I Paint’, organised by the Indigo Octagon collective and in which I participated as a guest artist.  Although the show had been open for a few days, the Friday evening event was an obvious opportunity to draw as many people as possible through the door and was, in that and several other respects, a real success.

Being at a geographical remove, I’d had a relatively little hands-on involvement with the show’s practical preparations and was unsure exactly what to expect prior to entering the gallery for the first time.  Additionally, I was rather breathless from the rapid race over through Friday evening M6 traffic, (thank you, Road Gods!), and a hurried hotel check-in.

In the event, I was delighted to see how well the exhibition looked and just how much care, thought and sheer hard work, Shaun Morris and the other guys had put into the hang.  Although generally familiar with the soft themes underlying the show, and some of the work on display, I hadn’t anticipated just how well different pieces would relate to each other across the room.  It was fascinating to observe the subtle correspondences between the differing preoccupations of the five artists emerge as one moved around the gallery.  I think one of the main achievements has been to allow these connections to be discovered and reflected upon naturally without too much spoon- feeding or conceptual contrivance.

It’s always scary to expose one’s work to a public arena and in the context of other artists’ output.  I was relieved to find I haven’t been fooling myself, and that, out in the World; my paintings can justify their creation.  Of course, there’s always a list of things one might do differently and certain aspects of the other participants’ work may suggest possible new ways forward for my own.  This is particularly true of Andrew Smith’s engagement with some concerns that I share but across a variety of platforms.  Despite my commitment to painting, he takes greater account of the flux of urban existence, and the relationship between environment, text and thought processes, than I have managed so far.  His video work, painted photographs and textual paintings supplied much food for thought.   Craig Underhill’s ceramics engage with the nuances of distressed hard surfaces to which I’m often drawn, whilst Shaun’s painted motorway nocturnes and Chris Cowdrill’s painstaking, collaged illustrations tackled those mutable zones at, and just beyond, the margins of any conurbation.

The Men They Could Hang: (L to R), Craig Underhill, Some Bloke From
Leicester, Shaun Morris, Chris Cowdrill, Andrew Smith

Work By Shaun Morris, (Left & Centre) And Andrew Smith, (Right)

Ceramics By Craig Underhill

Many exhibiting artists will probably admit that private views sometimes alternate between the slightly intimidating and the dispiritingly vacuous, but this time round it seemed the large gathering comprised people who’d come for the right reasons.  There was plenty of genuine interest in the work and lots of positivity and general good humour. I met many new faces and enjoyed numerous conversations. It was evident that the I.O. team had worked really hard at getting the word out and it paid off, with the room remaining full nearly all evening.  The exhibition brochure was a stylish art statement in its own right and the souvenir badges provided a nice touch of affordable ‘merch’.

Shaun & Andrew Perform 'Music For Service Stations'

Box Of Knives

The exhibition’s mixed media aspect was further enhanced by the inclusion of live music that turned a private view into a real multi-dimensional event.  Although Shaun and Andrew will maintain their performance of ‘Music For Service Stations’ wasn’t wholly successful, I was impressed they’d composed a piece specifically for the event at all.  They were followed by a committed performance from local band Box of Knives that went down very well with the room.

It Was a Mixed Crowd

Although our numbers were a little reduced through illness, I was pleased to be able to take a small contingent with me to add to the crowd.  As well as thanking the I.O. guys for making it all happen, and everyone who attended, particular thanks are due to Lorel, Susie, Pauline, Dave and Sid for helping to make it a great weekend altogether.  More of that in my next bulletin…

'Thanks For Coming'

It’s worth mentioning that the show continues until November 23 so here’s hoping that, before then, some more folks make it along to the Works Gallery, Jubilee Centre, 130 Pershore Street, Birmingham B5 6ND.  Oh, and if you want to know who Harvey Smoke is, - ask Andrew.