- Venue
- Motorcade/FlashParade
- Location
- South West England
On setting foot into ‘Open Country’ there is an immediate visual assault akin to the aural discombobulation of stumbling into a smoky jazz club: you are not immediately sure where to focus your attention. The paintings ahead of you all individually resemble something, but at the same time look like nothing at all. Amidst this there is a recognisable tune but as slacker soloist, Brendan Lancaster breaks down its conventional form and has a wander into unknown quarters. Sometimes you’re not even sure if he knows what he’s doing or where he’s going.
In some respects that is entirely the point. With titles such as ‘Second thoughts’, ‘Having searched everywhere else’ and ‘Blue maze’ it’s conceivable Lancaster has taken the great free jazz innovator Ornette Coleman’s advice and decided to play with absolutely no idea what the end result might be. There is an arrangement of sorts but you wonder if the brain is actually working alongside the hand in the final brushstroke or wipe of paint. From the outset several of the works resemble heads or objects from a still life, but no sooner have you noticed this than linear actions disrupt the field and you’re left with a framework with no discernible start or finish.
‘Disc’ typifies the architectural forms found within his paintings and suggest a way into the image. You begin to imagine this ramshackle construct housing a disagreeable individual cast out from society; apocalyptic visions abound in the earthy brown gunge. Look closer and it’s obvious this painting has been something before – perhaps another work that has gone wrong – so immediately a history within the paint is subtly forming without you really knowing it.
Lancaster’s most recent paintings have seen a shift into the use of raw colour, with ‘Second thoughts’ being the glaringly obvious example of this. Vicious yellow rubs along aggressively with a hot pink resembling freshly sunburnt skin, yet looming clouds from the past threaten to encroach and deaden the sting. Compared with paler and more pallid earlier works such as ‘Having searched everywhere else’, these newer paintings point towards a more physical approach hinting at cartoons and a gentle nod towards the art of Philip Guston.
‘Blue Maze’ exemplifies this the most with a blue figure taking centre stage. Something about its macho stance makes you want to laugh – is this intentional? Who knows, but it does allow for sound to reverberate around the gallery and mingle with the visual noise. Ultimately you cannot help but engage with Lancaster’s paintings. As they say in the jazz world, “he can cook like crazy”.
