Camberwell College of Art (UAL)

This is the first piece of work I made after finishing studying at Camberwell College of Art. The work was made for a group show of graduate, at the Former Alliance Gallery, Peckham, London.

Degree show has been installed.

I have made and painted 5 more Continuous Profiles of Oliver Cromwell, this time with more detain in the hair, with a wart and a darker green. I have decided to display them using cardboard postal tubes as plinths and need to get them secure so they don’t fall over.

This is a development of my piece ‘Oliver Cromwell Xmas tree’ I have been trying to find ways to display the piece so that it was not just placed on a plinth and had a platform that would become part of the work. This is the solution I have chosen for this head. I have placed it on an old bar stool with a turn table installed in it so that the head rotates.

My practice is an exploration of iconoclastic devices within painting. I have been exploring various ways to use the destruction of art and (the breaking of) the icon to make artworks that deal with the traditions and histories of painting. I am interested in the conflict between going to great lengths to make work and the very deliberate act of vandalization. With this I am also interested in the dividing line between vandalism, destruction and damaging of work deemed as mindless and ignorant, and iconoclasm, where the destruction and damaging of work is though of as important. I have been exploring making work that has the prospect to be damaged by the viewer in an act of participation and I have been investigating works that are destroyed violently and then the residual broken remains of what I have created are displayed creating a paradox between the dedication and time put into the work and the quick crude and violent destruction of the work. I have also been exploring work that is not damaged but uses satire and subversion to attack icons.
The use of paint is important to my practice; this varies from oil paint to more modern materials such as acrylic paint and older techniques such as egg tempera. The point of departure for my work comes from my interest in the uses of paint liberated from the flat surface, so I am free to use the support for painting as an object and involve it in the work. This reveals the physical aspects of my paintings and how this changes the viewers’ reaction to the work.
In recent projects the role of the artist behind the work as a creator of myth and explorer of the miraculous and how this is connected to failure has also become an aspect of my work that I am beginning to investigate further.