Work in Progress - Pip Dickens

This series of paintings developed, initially, as a response to books/films that utilised fabric or apparel as a key motif, or metaphor, within the storyline. Apparel (and cloth itself) have been utilised as metaphors, or devices, in folk tales and fictional literature down the centuries. Characters use clothes to conceal, or create alternative, identities. There is also a parallel with fabric and threads in the construction of stories themselves. Plots are unravelled. This is wonderfully explained in Kate Summerscale's book 'The Suspicions of Mr Whicher - Or The Murder at Road Hill House. Summerscales states the word 'clue' derives from 'clew' meaning a ball of twine or thread, and like Ariadne's thread in the Minotaur's labyrinth, has been the line of enquiry followed (forward or backwards) to resolve the story. All crimes, or plots, conclude with the 'denoument' she explains, which literally means a process of 'unknotting'. People fabricate stories, hide behind veils of lies, they spin tales. A story is a yarn. I determined that key elements of composition drew upon qualities within Film Noir and Technicolor technology surrounding epic widescreen vistas - techniques that, to me, heighten drama and tension within the moving image. The fascination, for example, with the 'letterbox' effect is taken directly from revolutionary widescreen film formats of the 1950s (Todd-AO, Panavision, Vistavision, Cinemascope etc.) With regard to content of the works, I draw upon memory perception within the work: the paintings allude to personal constructions of how we remember things and the eidetic aspect of memory – what Marina Warner describes as ‘referring to optical experiences that are retained in the mind’s eye with hallucinatory intensity.’[‘Phantasmagoria; Marina Warner, Oxford University Press]. The Drawings I produced small, intense, charcoal drawings alongside the paintings - these are attempts to straddle the notion of a recalled image, or sensation, from film – they seem truer than an actual film still, or clip, because they convey particular, individual, perceptions, interpretations and emotions. Completed series to date is 'Dr Zhivago' (Russian Silver Birch) drawings. Recently commenced and ongoing work includes drawings based around Femme Fatale characters in Film Noir and 'The Elephant Man' (Cloud) drawings.		The Paintings The paintings allude to fabric in some way. However, some also have developed into environments and atmospheres containing darkness, light and dust. They are never seen in their entire context. They are seen through the masking of the letterbox format and so deny the viewer from seeing the whole picture. I feel this aspect of ‘the close-up’ heightens drama and alludes to the partial, or fragmentary, recollection or memory perception which, sometimes, can appear nightmarish or too close for comfort. The French philosopher, Roland Barthes, wrote a paper on ‘Cinemascope’ in the 1960s and suggested Cinemascope brings about loss: "Perhaps the close-up will not survive . . ." But a "new dialectic between men and the horizon, men and objects, should come into view.” However, I believe, at least, that these paintings do acknowledge the importance of the close up – even if it is fixed only in our mind’s eye – a fetish for a detail; an image or experience pinned down - while film moves forward relentlessly like Time. These letter box paintings could be read as voyeuristic or, even, forensic examination of specific details. I am happy to leave them open and ambiguous – banal details or evocative, imagined scenes or memories. Pip Dickens May 2008

The paintings and drawings (completed and in progress) are influenced by the following books and/or films Universal Picture 2001: A Space Odyssey (film Stanley Kubrick and the 'no horizon' myth posited by mythologist, Joseph Campbell) .................................................. Madame Bovary Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert .................................................. Mrs Danvers Rebecca, Daphne Du Maurier .................................................. Miss Havisham I and II Great Expectations, Charles Dickens .................................................. Madame De Farge A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens .................................................. Dr Zhivago, Boris Pasternak (film David Lean) .................................................. The Elephant Man (film David Lynch) .................................................. Madeleine Elster/Judy Barton Vertigo, Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac (film Alfred Hitchock)		Diggory Venn The Return Of The Native, Thomas Hardy .................................................. Des Esseintes Against Nature, Joris-Karl Huysmans .................................................. Desdemona Othello, William Shakespeare .................................................. Madama Butterfly (Cio-Cio-San) Madama Butterfly, John Luther Long (Music: Puccini) .................................................. Marnie Marnie, Winston Graham (film Alfred Hitchcock) .................................................. Film Noir Various scenes and/or costumes within the genre

pip dickens
Information about work in progress

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