I’ve recently started a four month residency in Berlin and lately I’ve been thinking a lot about what specifically influences a painting and how those influences manifest. I think that visually the architecture of the city is having an impact on my work, along with the branding and design I’m encountering. I’ve been thinking about the graffiti too, especially in relation to signs and symbols. This has been on my mind for a while since looking again at the paintings of Gottlieb. I’ve been going to lots of shows and studio visits, so with all of this going on I am expecting to see a few changes in my paintings.
At the moment I’m reading Walden Two by B. F. Skinner. I’m really interested ideas around utopias and dystopias, particularly in the balance between the organic and the artificial. I think this is reflected in my work through the contrast between spontaneous brush marks and a more ordered geometric aesthetic.
I’m also looking at a book called Platonic and Archimedean Solids by Daud Sutton as part of a collaborative project with artist Alyson Olson back in Manchester. We are working in response to the book and with the wider conversation around materiality, the rectangle, containment, framing devices and the object in mind too.
I’ve been to a few exhibitions showing digital work since being in Berlin, including Free WiFi/Gratis WLAN at Eigen + Art Lab, and Death Imitates Language by Harm van den Dorpel at Neumeister Bar-Am. I had been thinking a lot about internet aesthetics before that too, as well as how the adverts, logos, and branding that we encounter on a daily basis infiltrate into the work. I’m really interested in the contrast between the slow, considered process of painting and the sensory bombardment of daily life, and how contemporary painting deals with those polarities.
Colours used:
Turquoise emulsion
Pale Grey emulsion
Silk Purple acrylic
Metallic Green acrylic
Fluorescent Pink acrylic
Fluorescent Yellow acrylic
Pale Lemon Yellow acrylic
Violet acrylic
Turquoise emulsion
Pale Grey emulsion
Silk Purple acrylic
Metallic Green acrylic
Fluorescent Pink acrylic
Fluorescent Yellow acrylic
Pale Lemon Yellow acrylic
Violet acrylic
Reading:
Walden Two by B. F. Skinner
Vitamin P, New Perspectives in Painting
Platonic and Archimedean Solids by Daud Sutton
Walden Two by B. F. Skinner
Vitamin P, New Perspectives in Painting
Platonic and Archimedean Solids by Daud Sutton
Listening to:
Kurt Vile
Metronomy
Radioeins
The Less I Know The Better by Tame Impala – hearing it everywhere at the moment!
Kurt Vile
Metronomy
Radioeins
The Less I Know The Better by Tame Impala – hearing it everywhere at the moment!
