Don't Believe In Signs, Comma, 2002
All Embracing (detail), 2000
It is a genuine attempt to push the boundaries of the second dimension through the interaction of surface, texture, light and spatial depth.
The contradiction of dark paint interacting with exterior light gives these works a peculiar sense of transmogrification, in the sense that as the environmental light (or the viewer's position) changes, the paintings appear to move and 'breathe'. This technique results in a three dimensional, almost hologram like experience.
Notions of the Baroque underpin the work with particular reference to the light--dark allegories that abound in literature eg. Milton's 'Paradise Lost' and the tenebrist/chiaroscuro artists - for example Caravaggio and Zurburan. They also draw on the music of the period in particular librettos from operas by Handel, Rameau and Purcell. The titles of the works provide clues to some references. For example:-.
"Retiros" is a word once used to describe a Baroque garden - usually a small hideaway - somewhere for an individual to escape and contemplate. "La Folie de la Vision" is a phrase coined by a French theorist to describe the madness of vision which encompasses Baroque notions of the visual experience.
"Legerdemain" is usually used to describe trickery and slight of hand, but in it's literal translation means 'a light touch'."Vapourish Fancy" refers to literary sources, in particular, Daniel Defoe's ' Roxanne' in which the heroine's state of mind is described as 'vapourish fancy' - that of hysterical imagination - or the 'vapours' as they were commonly known."Acanthus" is a flower of legend that never dies.
to see paintings from this series click here.
Glacier Zebra, 1995
This series represents a number of paintings that were produced as result of an art travel award to Iceland in 1995.
The landscape revealed many paradoxes - at once harsh and unforgiving, at other times soft and very beautiful. Stark colour contrasts abound - most particularly between the black lava soil and white snow. This phenomenon is a graphic extreme and can, at times, distort depth of vision and confuse evaluation of the true scale of the landscape. (To see a selection of research photographs click here)
Resultant paintings played with the idea of extremes and confusion.
Some paintings as with Glacier Zebra utilize black and white paint in a free flowing application to produce a zig zag effect not unlike that observed in the landscape and within a glacier flow. In this painting three stratas can be discerned after a time. The top part of the painting representing the land, the middle the flow, the third the land again.
However, all appear as if one and this is further endorsed by the method of making - a simultaneous manipulation of flowing black and white paint applied flat and then immediately tilted to and fro until the desired affect is achieved.
Other paintings played with the idea of black and white within the order of application. For example taking a painting from a black ground and through many applications of translucent white layers, producing a rich, luminous whiteness - not unlike that of ice. Iceland I is an example.
Between Violence & Friendly Persuasion, 1996
detail
This series of paintings emerged as final works, whilst studying for the BA (Hons) Fine Art degree at Leeds Metropolitan University in 1996.
Only two of the paintings exist - Between Violence and Friendly Persuasion and Whistleblowers & Scapegoats. The painting Reading Between the Lines is illustrated but, unfortunately, no longer exists.
Notions of propaganda can be interpreted as positive- ie. aiming to spread information to new areas that previously may have been ignorant of a cause or culture. It can also be used to negative effect, for example, in spreading misinformation in order to manipulate a situation.
Propaganda is a received perspective and in these paintings I was influenced by such commentators as Noam Chomsky, Edward Said and the novels of Albert Camus, in particular his novel La Peste (The Plague) in which a community is cut off from the rest of the world due to quarantine. Thus perspectives between the outer and inner communities becomes separated - alienated.
These influences were interpreted in the utilization of an ellipse motif which, in short, represents the individual. The ellipse shape could be interpreted as the lens of an eye - how we see, or how we are seen. As in the painting Between Violence and Friendly Persuasion the motifs appear to tumble and fall. Each motif appearing at differing positions or angles. The painting's overall impact is the combination of many, many layers of semi transparency thus some areas are dense and seem to cover up any history; others make transparent that history.
Three of these paintings were selected for shortlist in the NatWest Art prize in 1997.
to see paintings from this series click here.
Bilateral Transparency (detail) 2000
detail)
These paintings were the result of experimentation with transparent mediums. The idea of transparency within a painting allows the viewer to see the complete history of the work, right back to the fabric of the canvas. Transparency also alludes to the 'political'. These paintings were made between 1998 to 2000 when the word 'transparency' had become a popular political buzzword in the UK. In this respect the paintings became an (albeit cynical) proposal about contradiction - that an image that was transparent (seemingly honest) could also be complex, disturbing and confusing.
The resultant paintings Bilateral Transparency and Trilateral Transparency are examples. The compositional element of these paintings is very strongly influenced by classical music, in particular Bach's preludes and fugues (The Well Tempered Clavier). The issue of counterpoint being fundamental, in particular the repetition and interweaving of various strands of sound. Bach's fugues seem pure and simple and yet they are deceptively complex structures.
As a result, these paintings do appear visually transparent but are also blatantly 'transparent' in terms of the events of their making. They can be optically seductive and yet, at the same time, disturbing. They have no beginning, no end, no horizon and no particular area of focus. One could say they are a banal kind of Mannerism.
The titles 'bilateral' and 'trilateral' were selected for their political flavour but also - again in a mundanely cynical way - are evidence of the painting's making:- 'bilateral' being the utilization of two hues and 'trilateral' of three.
to see paintings from this series click here
Heaven & Earth
1.jpg)
Red Dragon (detail)
“In the process of colouring (painting) the surface of the canvas (the picture plane) should receive the greatest possible richness in light-emanation-effect and, at the same time, it should retain the transparency of a jewel. The light and form should control illusory oscillation into space and out of space…The pictorially decorative effect is achieved through musical contrasts and rhythmic relations conditioned in space…for every medium contains its own rhythmic laws and thus its strict limitations through which it is distinguished as the specific way of expression that it is."
Hans Hoffman on ‘The Aims Of Art’, 1932
The series of ‘Oriental’ paintings are partly influenced by motifs, shapes and forms from Chinese and Japanese culture. They are ‘extractions’ rather than direct ‘lifts’ of these elements. In so doing they are not comments on Oriental culture but arbitrary forms that develop and change through the application of a variety of painting mediums. They are observed details that have been amplified to produce a new ‘language’.
One intention is to convey a sense of celebration of the source material – kimonos, priests robes, fans, kites and ceramics for example. The paintings develop this idea of celebration in that they are playful, colourful, over-the-top decoration. Thus the issue of a painting as a decorative object is taken to its extreme – they are all about decoration; they are foppish; they are over-the-top.Their second intention, or gravitas, lies in the painting methodology- of exploring, devising and applying contrasting (and novel) ways of using paint and other mediums to produce the overall character of each painting. For example, the melding of flat, patterned, transparent, layers of coloured varnish with dense, textured paint forms. Formal divisions within the painting mark changes in tempo and acknowledge formal design issues that one might observe in decorative objects, for example the panels of a kimono. Roundels, fan shapes, blossom and wave shapes are examples of motifs.The fundamental laws of a medium having its own limitation (as expressed by Hans Hoffman) is played out in these works; of testing mediums and their application; pushing for new ways of creating illusion, contrast and light; of creating ‘jewel-like’ areas that reveal the value of a pure colour for what it is – a beautiful colour.
As decorative paintings they are really a
homage to paint, of consciously recognising
- and celebrating - individual values of
painting mediums – the purity of a
pigment,
the viscosity of a medium, the sheen
of a
varnish.
to see paintings from this series click here
to see paintings from this series click here
Lines of Separation
Venus Freak (detail)
The formal aspects of Op Art - colour and movement - are given a slightly uncomfortable 'nudge' in order to produce paintings that are not quite the perfect geometrical constructs demanded of them in terms of precision. (see artists operating in this genre ie. Victor Vasarley and Bridget Riley). I am suggesting that these constructs are actually in the process of shifting, or re-arranging themselves. Not unlike the story of toys coming to life at night without the knowledge of their owners, I wanted to show how these moire constructs teeter on the verge of a satisfactory final visual appearance or, just like the toys being interrupted, have quickly frozen in motion, and are not quite at their optimum position - elements are, clearly, out of place. This, in turn, I think suggests motion, or a desire by the viewer to have 'closure', to want to, or try to, tidy the image up themselves.
The paintings are made up of layers of individual colour stripes. One layer is placed over the other (a slow process using oils). As a result, each layer negates, or enhances, the colour or shapes that precede them. Even though there is the possibility to predict what will happen between each layer during the painting's facture, the actual outcome was always a surprise to me because a slight differentiation in the bend of a line or hue (from the original sketch) made an enormous difference.
This approach was an exercise in negotation between intention and the actual result of one layer reacting to another repeatedly. The idea that I was controlled as much by the painting as the painting was by myself was an important factor and so retained a level of excitement and surprise within the process of painting.
to see paintings from this series click here
detail of 'Miss HavishamII'
There is a dedicated page for the fabrications project which is still in progress. Click here for further details. Work is based on memory, motifs and metaphors from film and literature.
Shortlisted for the 2008 Blackpool Illuminations Design Competition, 'Luna Moth by Gaslight' light installation is to be sited as a bespoke piece in Stanley Park, Blackpool at a future date subject to Lottery funding. More details in due course.
all images copyright Pip Dickens
This page updated on 01 April 2008