Firmament – Paul Liptrot Solo Show at Thirtyfive Gamble in Nottingham

I’m in the full throws of preparing for my upcoming show, ‘Firmament’ and it’s proving to be exciting and challenging in equal measure. Deciding to go solo is a big step. I’ve taken part in group shows in both the UK and India and there is something less charged about sharing the emotions and process with others. Doing a solo show is about saying, ‘hey, look at me’ something that isn’t within my comfort zone, not by a long shot. There is nowhere to hide and the success of the show is firmly on my shoulders.

Personally it has been an arduous journey to the point where I feel confident in my own voice and where I am in my career. I’ve been looking back at some of my previous work from moons ago and it’s good to critically look at where I started, what has changed and which connections are still part of who I am.  It’s clear to me that control is one of the main threads to my practice, how I react to that control can lead to big leaps but also becoming constrained.

I think my work is best when the control and freedom work together. There is something about rules allowing me the freedom to be creative. The prime example of this is the petri latex series where the dishes provide the space for me to push myself and create magic.

The work on paper is more complex as the edge is more difficult to define, marking the paper goes some way to ameliorating this issue thankfully. The picture in the gallery shows a piece of work during at the process (right) and once complete (left), both have their merits, but they show how sometimes I find stopping a bit difficult. That ‘just one more movement’ can completely change the final work.

I’m putting together a lot of new work along with some of my older work to give a full demonstration of my journey. For me, this feels like the show is providing a place from which to develop once it’s over, to consider new ideas in connection with my current preoccupations and to see where I can take them.

One of the most exciting parts of the show is the development of my showcase installation which will be a huge feature in the venue. It will have 80 dishes in a range of colour ways in a backlit laser cut mdf frame.  I’m working with a set recipe that will be repeated across all the combinations with some colours being constant and others changing. I’ve done something like this before (without a laser cutter that time), this version is a big leap forward as the dishes aren’t simply placed in the piece but in such a way that suggests movement through their position and colour depth.

So, for now, its full steam ahead! Only 4 weeks to go!

Firmament Show Information
Firmament is taking place at Thirtyfive Gamble in Nottingham on the 28th and 29th of October (10.30-18.30 Saturday – 10.30- 16.30 Sunday) and the Private View is at 18.30 on the 27th of October! Hopefully see some of you there!

• Show information:  Fimament on Paul Liptrot Artist Website
• Facebook Page:  Paul Liptrot Artist Facebook Page
• Event Page:   Firmament Facebook Event
  • 
  • 
  • 

Choosing what to call a show is a daunting experience, particularly because you need to find a description that can be applied to what your work is about and that makes people think. How does that work?

There are so many ways that my work can be broken down from my almost scientific approach, my use of materials or colour, or the plethora of inspirations that drive me to create more work. It was key for me to find something that would bring together my petri latex series with my oil works on paper.

I considered a lot of words and spent time looking at base words, synonyms, antonyms and so on. I wanted something that was more than just a word or phrase, it needed to be evocative and to create a sense of wonder. Hopefully something that would draw people in to want to find out more.

As is often my way I looked up and considered space for inspiration. I’d been awed by the recent pictures of Jupiter taken by the NASA mission, Juno, which show a whole new level of detail about what is an intriguing and wondrous planet.  Read more about this on the NASA website

This led me to the firmament which has biblical origins but which speaks of something that transcends a singular way of thinking. What is it? Is it real? Is it an emotion? Can it be pinned down to something. The description I like the most is also the simplest:

Firmament. (Noun) the vault of heaven; sky.

There is something quite beguiling about this description, in some ways its quite definite and in others it’s really abstract and colossal. I find that tension between it being something and nothing quite exciting.

This led me to think of the curvature of space and how, apart from a handful of people, we are unable to see the point at which the atmosphere dissipates and is replaced by the vastness of space. One of my aims in life is to see that for myself one day (here’s hoping).

This indeterminable edge often features in my work, for example, with the petri latex series the dish itself is quite definite but what happens inside it is more free and less simple to define, are you seeing into something, a portion of something or a whole object in itself? This is something that I hope that people viewing my work consider whether consciously or not.

The soft curve that I see when I think of the firmament is also evident in my works on paper and I’m creating a new series of work which feature an edge, whether subtle of quite clearly. The movements attempting to capture energy on either side of this divide.

Hopefully this idea will excite others as much as it excites me in the run up to the show, running from the 27th to the 29th of October in Nottingham.   Check out the event on facebook for more updates!   Firmament Solo Show on Facebook