New Paintings

'The Simulacrum is never what hides the truth- it is the truth that hides the fact that there is none. The simulacrum is true.'  (Baudrillard, 1994; 1)

Hyperreality is a term used in semiotics, consisting of the inability to distinguish reality from simulation. Reality and fiction are blended together so there is no clear distinction between them.

The interface between the scanner and the printed photograph manifested within my ink drawings represents a blending and fusion between reality, representation and technology. The end result becomes a hybrid of both with gliches from the scanning process combining with recognizable areas from the landscape. 

Dan Hays, The Clearing, 1999, Oil on Canvas

Dan Hays' anti-romantic paintings make use of nature as his subject matter but the method is derived from imitation and technology.
Looking at a Hays' painting is not to experience a communion with nature but instead a sense of separation. The work is not really about the landscape, but seems to be more concerned with 'second nature' or the overlay human beings have imposed on nature via their technologies.

'The project is collectively titled Colorado Impressions, as digital image compression has striking formal associations with the Impressionist imperative to capture the essence of a scene as quickly as possible with a restricted palette of colours... this is a special relationship, where we can see digital photographs as proto-paintings, abstracting visual information, creating painterly effects several removes from the world.' (danhays, 2015)

Dan Hays, Colorado Impression 9c, 2002, Oil on Canvas

My recent paintings carry a strong influence to Hays' work via the process of simplification and the reduction of the composition as well as the influence of technology via the process of scanning and the subsequent interference and conflict with the picture plane.

In creating these paintings I chose to move away from the places that I had used in order to inform previous work: Mousehold Heath and the North Norfolk Coast. As a reference for these paintings I used a walk that I have regularly undertaken close to my parents house which takes the walker alongside the banks of the river Wensum for a stretch of around five miles. As with the previous two locations that I used to reference my work this is a space that I have regularly visited as a child and a young adult and therefore my intention was that it contained within it memories and associations from my past.

Photographic panoramas taken during my walk along the river.

River Walk, 2015, Oil on Canvas, 35 x 60cm

River Walk I, 2015, Oil on Canvas, 50 x 75cm

In creating this recent series of works I chose to experiment once more with the medium of paint in order to move away from the work that I had previously created using drawing and silk screen. I attempted to utilise the distortion via the process of scanning that I felt had been very effective within previous experimentation. 

In analysing my intention for the work and the outcome I would come to the conclusion that although effective in part, overall I would say that the results achieved via drawing and printing were more effective. Once more within this work as with previous works my overriding propensity to use bright colour has meant that I am no longer referencing the places which I am depicting within the paintings, the bright colours taking precedence over the other aspects of the composition. Similarly the crispness and graphic nature of the drawing and silk screen provided some way of unifying the compositions not present within these pieces. Although I feel that the fashion in which I have handled the paint is partially effective on account of its smudged and blurred nature owing something to chance process, I feel that overall the pieces would benefit by subduing the colours used a well as referencing them back to the original landscapes and places from which the imagery was derived.

'For me there is no difference between a landscape and an abstract painting.. I refuse to limit myself to a single option, to an exterior resemblance, to a unity of style which can't exist. A colour chart differs only externally from a small green landscape. Both reflect the same basic attitude. It is this attitude which is significant.' (Antoine, 2004; 1)

Gerhard Richter, Landscape near Koblenz, 1987, Oil on Canvas

One of the trademark styles of the German painter Gerhard Richter  (1932 - ) is his use of the form of blurring within his work. The blur serves as a perfect general metaphor for memory, its degradation and corrosion that is wrought by time, as well as recalling camera movement and errors of printing. 

'I blur to make everything equal, everything equally important and equally unimportant.' (McCarthy, 2011)

Gerhard Richter, Apple Trees (sketch), 1987, Oil on Canvas.

 

Like many other German artists of his generation, Richter references romanticism within his paintings. However road signs replace church spires within his landscapes, waves and clouds become fragmented, isolated, collaged and inverted. The fascination with the scene he is depicting is retained, but it is a fascination voided of sublimity, wedded instead to repetition and reproduction, an interrogation of the act of looking and the technologies through which this takes place. 

'In principle, the work of art has always been reproducible. Objects made by humans could always be copied by humans. Replicas were made by pupils in practicing for their craft, by masters in disseminating their works, and, finally, by third parties in pursuit of profit. But the technological reproduction of artworks is something new.' (Benjamin, 2008)

In the work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction, (1936), Walter Benjamin discusses the shift in perception and its affects in the wake of the advent of film and photography. In particular Benjamin discusses how the manner in which we look and see the visual work of art is different now. Benjamin discusses the loss of aura through the act of mechanical reproduction itself. The aura for Benjamin represents the originality and authenticity of a work of art that has not been reproduced. A painting has an aura while a photograph does not; the photograph is an image of an image while the painting remains utterly original.

If in Benjamin's eyes a painting contains within it originality and authenticity whilst a photograph does not then how does this relate to a painting, print or drawing that has been subjected to technology whilst simultaneously referencing photography. My project began as an investigation of memory and the interface between the landscape and the walker passing through. A photograph is regularly used as a way of capturing a moment or a memory in time. A scanner may be used as a way of copying, recording and storing information therefore acting as a vessel in order to transfer and store virtual memories. By creating paintings which have been informed via photographs and scans I am curious to know how this would fit into Benjamin's ideas concerning authenticity. In my mind the process of technology would somehow create a simulated or inauthentic aura when it acts upon a painting. 


Antoine, J.P. (2004) 'Gerhard Richter: Landscapes.' New York: Zwirner & Wirth.

Baudrillard, Jean (1994) 'Simulacrum and Simulation.' translated by Sheila Faria Glaser. Ann Arbor: Universtiy of Michigan Press.

Benjamin, W. (2008) 'The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction.' London: Penguin.

danhays.org (2015) Dan Hays (internet) available at danhays.org/coloradointro.html

McCarthy Tom (2011) 'Blurred Visionary: Gerhard Richter's photo-paintings.' The Guardian 22nd September 2011. 

New silk screen paintings

'When the word 'hallucination' first came into use, in the early 16th Century, it denoted only 'a wandering mind.' It was not until the 1830s that Jean-Etienne Esquisol, a French psychiatrist, gave the term its present meaning- prior to that what we now call hallucinations were referred to simply as 'apparitions.' Precise definitions of the word 'hallucination' still vary considerably, chiefly because it is not always easy to discern where the boundary lies between hallucinations, misperceptions and illusion. But generally hallucinations are defined as percepts, arising in the absence of any external reality- seeing things or hearing things that are not there.'  (Sacks, 2013; 1)

Following on from the pen and ink drawings that I created, I was hoping to create a series or works combining both the linear, graphic and controlled qualites of the drawings by turning them into silk screen prints alongside a much looser and spontaneous aesthetic via the introduction of paint. As well as marrying the printed and painterly surfaces I was also intrigued as to what the introduction of colour would do to the look and the feel of the images. 

I was interested in various accounts of walking that I had been researching which culminated in the walker experiencing hallucinations creating a distorted perception of reality, place and the landscape. The account of John Clare escaping from his incarceration and walking back to his home resulted in him hallucinating due dehydration, exhaustion and a lack of food. In 1991 the artist Hamish Fulton whose work emphasises the action of walking in the landscape walked all 120 miles of the Pilgrim's Way without sleep in midwinter: 'I started to hallucinate,' he says, 'A small blue bag on the path suddenly turned into a turkey.' 

Hamish Fulton, The Pilgrims Way, 1991, Black & White photograph and text. 

In keeping with my research aims concerning memory and the interface between memory submerged within the landscape and those of the walker passing through I felt that it would be appropriate to re-use and utilise the large ink drawings as a way of expanding upon this process. I liked the idea that by subjecting a visual rendering of a landscape to a number of processes both digitial and manual including photography, drawing, scanning and printing, the subject matter changes, becoming dislocated from it's original anchoring within reality instead starting to represent something else more abstract and less defined, this tied into some of the research that I had been undertaking in relation to a hallucination as something arising from the absence of any external reality. Using bright, non naturalistic colours which I mono silk screened onto the paper as a starting point, I repeated the process of moving whilst scanning the pen and ink drawings, which I silk screened on top of the coloured base. 

Transcendental Experience, 2015, Silkscreen and Acrylic on Paper, 20 x 35cm

Untitled, 2015, Silkscreen and Acrylic on Paper, 20 x 35cm

Untitled, 2015, Silkscreen and Acrylic on Paper, 20 x 35cm

Trace and Apparition, 2015, Silkscreen and Acrylic on Paper, 20 x 35cm

Figment of the Imagination, 2015, Silkscreen and Acrylic on Paper, 20 x 35cm

Hallucination, 2015, Silkscreen and Acrylic on Paper, 20 x 35cm

Diffuse, 2015, Silkscreen and Acrylic on Paper, 20 x 35cm

Turbulence, 2015, Silkscreen and Acrylic on Paper, 20 x 35cm

Memory, 2015, Silkscreen and Acrylic on Paper, 20 x 35cm

Fragmentation and Deconstruction, 2015, Silkscreen and Acrylic on Paper, 20 x 35cm

Sub-Conscious Process, 2015, Silkscreen and Acrylic on Paper, 20 x 35cm

Dissolution, 2015, Silkscreen and Acrylic on Paper, 20 x 35cm

Following on from a group critique in which I presented these pieces there were a number of observations that was generated. A number of comments centred on the fact that the prints appeared to resemble a series of sound waves, or seismic waves, defined as waves of energy that travel through the earth's layers, resulting from an earthquake or volcano that gives out low-frequency acoustic energy. 

A seismic wave generated from an erupting volcano.

Comments included the fact that the the colours referenced did not appear to connect to the place from which they were being referenced and that it would be interesting to see what the visual outcome would be if the colours were linked back to Brancaster Staithe in order to see whether this enhanced the sense of that place. The use of non naturalistic colours was noted as creating more of a decorative feel. 

On another level it was also suggested that by using non naturalistic colours alongside the black printed marks it had a repellant and disruptive feel generating the visual effect of a migraine. It was also noted that it would be interesting to see what the effect would be of exhibiting them all together in one seamless line without gaps between them, in order to create a sense of a loop so that they could be interpreted as a continual stream or sequence of information.

Mock up of work displayed as a continual sequence.

Another interesting observation related to the fashion in which the spaces within the compositions were being utilised as a way of representing either the land or the sky, and the fact that it would be useful to attempt to manipulate this space in order to see how the pieces might look if either of these were removed or their proportions were adjusted. 

One of the final points that was noted in relation to my work was about the particular space of Burnham Overy Staithe and the idea of attempting to go back in time or revisit a place containing memories from the past. It was suggested that via the process of revisiting and reconnecting with a particular place and the memories stored there attempting to physically depict this would be more effective if it was done in an abstract, hypothetical fashion, rather than in a figurative and representational manner.

'With the painting the inspiration comes from the process of the work itself... like music (making the work) is an emotional experience. It's a visual language and it's almost impossible to put words to it.' (huckmagazine, 2015)

An artist, whose works deals with ideas around dislocation and alienation who subjects his imagery to number of different processes as well as working across a variety of mediums is the artist Christopher Wool. Christopher Wool's recent paintings address the experience of bringing us closer to an understanding of the creative dislocation we share with a metropolis we know we can neither inhabit or escape. A sprayed line of enamel covers a canvas, while on another canvas the same looping line recurs as a screen print. The painting is always relocated or dislocated and systematically amputated from the moment and the place of work. Wool photographs a line in order to create a silkscreen that repeats it however many times, the colours in higher and lower resolution, introducting an additional level of disorientation. 

Christopher Wool, Untitled, 2009, Enamel, Silkscreen, Spray Paint on Paper

 This systematic repetition across mediums creates the effect of dislocation and alienation, allowing for any number of transformative possibilities. Via the use of printing Wool exploits the print's power of repetition meaning that new and different marks and gestures are created from the middle of the work. As the work builds up and accumulates it is simultaneously lost, buried and decomposed. Images of painterly information are cycled through a process causing gestures to drift and return outside of each other, recombining elsewhere with others. 

Christopher Wool, Untitled, 2009, Enamel, Silkscreen, Spray Paint on Paper.

The use of the digital camera in the process affects the sharpness and the grain of the source image as this information is cycled through a process involving a camera, a screen plus other means of mediums the original gesture becomes dislocated and resituated from its origins.

Christopher Wool, 2001, Minor Mishap, Enamel and Silkscreen on Linen

huckmagazine (2015) Christopher Wood (internet) available at www.huckmagazine.com/art-and-culture/art-2/christopher-wool/

Sacks, O (2013) 'Hallucinations.' London: Picador; Main Market Ed. edition.