macro & micro

I’ve been working on a series of line paintings (similar to the aluminium works) for the past two years; based on a video again, but I struggled to find that ineffable something that a painting needs. Well I found it today – perhaps it was the gorgeous weather we’re having here, perhaps it was the sound of crickets, or that my wife could look after little Emilie allowing me to ‘get dirty’ and not worry about having to change a nappy . . . whatever it was, I’m glad they’re finished after 2 years of dabbling, wiping away and thinking they’re finished whilst not being convinced that I could ever show them.

Today I basically glazed over a texture of lines (which I’d built up methodically over weeks, maybe fifty layers) and manipulated the drips. The fluid paint has now sunk into the textures which has emphasised the lines. As a result of the wet paint the surface seems to have great depth which will probably disappear when they dry; I’m reluctant to use a gloss varnish, so I’ll do some experiments.

There is little I can do in the studio, that is, until I can move the paintings, which is good as I’ve got some reading to catch up on; I recently received in the post an M.Phil thesis written on the most active and shocking years of the camp, 1941-1942. Morbid, but interesting, are photos of the incinerator (still standing but undiscovered by me) and Jewish tombs in the cemetary in the town of Rivesaltes. It looks like I’ll be making another visit soon.

http://www.jonathan-moss.com/

This weekend I’ve been a little disappointed that I couldn’t attend the Video Art Festival in Athens (too short notice), I decided to throw myself headfirst in to making some prints, which I’ve put off for a while.

Mid print-run, I heard the postman knock at the door – the “Place, Identity and Memory” catalogue had arrived. I have a book of prints in the exhibition which starts next week in Dumfries. My book is based on the ‘Rivesaltes. Shoah’ series of videos, see Post 8. The catalogue is a thing of beauty, hand-bound with origami-style fold-outs showcasing each of the 70 books. Unfortunately I couldn’t hold the catalogue immediately as I was covered in ink.

The few days printing were tiring, but rewarding. I made four plates, carborundum on aluminium – printing on Whatman, which is always exciting as the ink seems to ‘enter’ the paper which still remains luminous. I was most pleased by the prints which were totally dark (‘RSA. PI.’), the delineation of form is dependent on the contrast of the carborundum lines (the ink rested on the surface of the paper) with the spaces in between (ink which was pressed into the paper).

Once the print-run was finished, I decided to turn the plates in to finished works – the results being much more visually dramatic than the prints! Both the plates and prints have their own merits though. This week it’s back to less exciting work, cleaning the prints.

http://www.jonathan-moss.com/

I have just had two videos accepted for the Athens Video Art Festival:

http://www.athensvideoartfestival.gr/eng/default.a…

They only contacted me yesterday, it starts on Thursday, so too short notice for me to attend, which is a shame.

Recently I seem to have dedicated a lot of time to filling in application forms, preparing DVDs and stills, writing summaries, packing up the work and nipping out to the post office, only to never hear from the organisers again. I put this down to the fact that I decided to include a statement at the start of the videos explaining their origin:

This is a video-walk through ruins and across scrub in a former concentration camp at Rivesaltes in the south of France, between the Mediterranean and the mountains on the edge of a motorway. Refugees have been held here during the dark episodes of the twentieth century: the Spanish Revolution, World War Two when thousands of Jews were sent from here to Auschwitz, the Algerian War of Independence, and recently, Eastern Europeans without visas seeking a better life.

The videos (including the ones accepted by Athens) ceased to be obscure and started to be overtly about the Holocaust and the other dark periods of twentieth century France. Prior to this year the same videos, without the statement, were generally accepted for festivals.

I accept that the work is not straightforward when compared to figurative videos based on a narrative, which was a reason for me to add the statement in the first place – my work demands time and effort from the viewer and the viewing experience desired is more akin to the experience of viewing paintings (after all, I am a painter).

I suppose it’s just how it goes – win some, lose some. If the work is not suited to some festivals / galleries it means that I have to spend more time targeting the ones who are sympathetic to my style of work and subject. The statement on the videos will stay for now.

http://www.jonathan-moss.com/