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Atomic Playboy, oil on canvas © Pip Dickens
The Chandelier series of paintings
derive
from initial research undertaken
whilst in
residence with Bradford Museums
and Galleries.
Paintings and sketches of chandeliers
developed
into allegorical works that depict
chandeliers
as ‘ships’ listing in a dark
ocean – suggestive
of outmoded orders/empires. Some
chandeliers
are depicted as if upturned atom
bomb shapes,
others are reminiscent of jelly
fish. Immortal
Medusa I and II depict chandeliers
like jelly
fish (upturned) – the Immortal
Medusa is
the only living thing known to
man that can
replicate its cells – and so
is truly immortal.
Some chandeliers allude to Englightenment/Science
and Science Fiction – ie. Captain
Nemo Mobilis
in mobili referring to Jules
Verne’s “20,000
leagues Under the Sea” – Captain
Nemo was
a cultured yet eccentric anti-hero
who kept
moving through the seas and disliked
Land
of any kind unless it was uninhabited.
His
vessel ‘The Nautilus’ contained
a substantial
gallery of art and other collections…an
ostentatious
and private underworld.
'To Mock the Invisible World with its Shadows' is a painting that alludes to Shelley’s
gothic novel ‘Frankenstein, or The Modern
Prometheus’ – the novel discussed the ‘new’
science of electricity/galvanism and Dr Frankenstein
is both drawn to, and unsure of, these new
ideas. The title of this painting is a direct
quotation from the novel. The painting shows
a chandelier seemingly charged with electricity
or lightning in contradiction to traditional
candle power. It is symbolic of the radical
change that electricity (and light) brought
to society. This idea connects with the essay
about the light bulb verusus the warm drama
of the candle in Jun'ichiro Tanizaki’s book
‘In Praise of Shadows’.
'Atomic Playboy' (above)refers to the Cold War - and threat of atomic
bombs. Admiral Blandy, commader of Operation
Crossroads (undertook nuclear testing on
the island of bikini) he stated that he was
“not an atomic playboy” and was photographed
celebrating the end of the operation with
his wife and Admiral Lowry cutting an atomic
bomb styled cake, together with Blandy’s
wife sporting a similar confection as a hat.
'Constellation Draco' – This painting appears to be the study of
a candlestick on its elaborate curved chandelier
‘arm’ smoking away with chandelier prisms
glistening like tear drops – the painting
could be ‘read’ as an astral constellation…named
after the constellation ‘Draco’ because of
the chandelier arm’s dragon like curves.
It ould also be interpreted as a Victorian
opium den with its green sulphure-like fumes…connections
can be made with other works such as The
Elephant Man and the poisonous greens in
Madame Bovary and Mrs Danvers.
'A Single Thought '– is a response to how man can, from his
imagination, create astonishing new ideas
and inventions – but whether they are morally,
or ethically, sound is another matter. The
image looks like a brain shaped cloud (or
atom bomb) with a pink ribbon suspended almost
like a nerve running down a spinal cord.
The nerves in the brain appear not unlike
electrical charges. Yet another painting
with connotations associated with Dr Frankenstein.
to see paintings from this series click here
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