Processes and methods that I utilise which help to form my methodology.
When taking photos, I’m noticing something that’s unusual, ordinary or familiar. Usually subject matter from either end of the spectrum; something that’s so familiar that’s morphed into something else. Something that I previously thought I knew – that has forever been present in my life – but that has become unfamiliar to me. Or vice versa. A sense of strangeness or distance from something close and familiar. A feeling of uncanniness.
It’s a moment, a recognition – or rather, an encounter that comes out of a recognition. Deleuze says the difference between an encounter and what we recognise is that a recognition is the things we know automatically in our world and that we accept without question. We don’t go “oh wow there’s a door” and “oh my goodness, there’s an elevator.” However, when we come across something that is not familiar to us we don’t recognize it fully – or at all. That is an encounter. We think with our bodies. I am relying on the moment of encounter that comes out of a familiar recognition. It’s something that isn’t always what I thought it was – it lifts itself into a feeling of the uncanny.
Sometimes the subject matter is embedded in a personal narrative. Thinking about the banana experience. It was something very familiar, that was in an unusual or unexpected situation. The world becomes a stage for events. Freud’s uncanny; a feeling of absence while anticipating presence, or vice versa. Found narrative, or readymade narrative, based on a “prop” or certain “scene” that triggers a certain memory. There’re two parallel areas of activity in my practice: The moment of encounter, and the deconstruction and reconstruction or reconfiguration of that encounter through the painting process. That’s why I paint. It’s an amalgamation of experience and memory and then the actual “reenactment” or reconfiguration happens. I am the actor that triggers the scene.
This is all the preliminary process of choosing subject matter. It’s very rare that I paint something directly from a photograph; the subject matter is a starting point. Photography allows me to surrender control over the image. Painting allows me to prioritise aspects of the image or reconfigure parts of an image based on what I want. Painting provides an emotional layer to the image. Painting is the process of making the unfamiliar familiar (to me).
Often when painting, I’ll change the framing and reposition the viewer in a way that represents parts of the subject matter that aren’t apparent in the photograph. I paint these sections of the objects based on my memories and knowledge of the subject matter. I am forced to truly look and consciously recollect my experiences and think about how the subjects are constructed. It’s a reenactment of sorts that triggers a relationship between the viewer and myself as an actor on the “stage” of painting itself. Thinking about My Dinner with André and how an audience needs to be presented with the familiar in order to truly engage with art. As soon as something is too unfamiliar and foreign, the viewer switches off. I am interested in creating a relationship with the viewer. How does one prolong audience engagement?
The more we appreciate difference, the more we have the capacity to appreciate difference. When you practice something, the more capacity you have for it. The idea of capacity is interesting. Does my audience have a capacity? What is my art doing? How is it being in the world? I think the audience does have a capacity when thinking about the more personal and nostalgic subject matter, but it depends on the viewer’s context.
If an audience is prepared to look at a painting, they’re already in a particular “zone”. The degree of strangeness is dependent on the viewer’s own experiences and the narrative they project. We have a select audience that is prepared to look at painting. Is painting only for those that are prepared to look at it? This is of utmost importance to me in many ways. It is a question that defines what I want to do and where my practice might go in the future. I have an uncanny feeling being in this elitist space. It’s a space that does seduce me and it feels like the safer option, knowing that if I follow a series of select rules, there is a community out there that would accept me. Think about Banksy.
Understanding the complex nature of the elitist high art structure itself is useful, but at the same time, it can also motivate me to position my practice so that I have a clear understanding of what is happening in order to maintain the reading that I desire. If you can’t find the context you desire or the community you desire, you create it. How can my painting be part of a network? How can I bring this idea out into a space? I need to try things out, the framing is very important in my work.
I need to tease out my enquiry into 3-4 questions. The value is in the subject matter. A priority of image or priority of mark. Think less about what, think more about how. Think about the subjects in relation to the process of painting and the relationship between the paintings and how we encounter them. What do I intend to achieve? How does the degree of finish affect the way the works are received? Why do I labour over some works? Why do others remain more provisional?
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