macro & micro

Hello everyone who clicked the link on Stramash Space. I’m pretty chuffed that Kim Walker chose to feature my new videos on their site this week.

I hope you find them interesting, hopefully something for everyone! It seems weird that the random footage I made of neon lights and New York streets has now evolved into a finished body of work.

One regret I have is not taking a tripod with me… how stupid; I took loads of wobbly stuff which I couldn’t use, next time: fewer pairs of socks!

Some of the imagery is a departure for me, but I’m thinking it will lead to a new phase in my painting too.

It’s been a while now since I finished them and I haven’t yet viewed them as a series, so I’m looking forward to looking at them later when the kids are in bed.

I’ve been thinking about the pros and cons of an online show… on the negative side the viewer may just flick through with the sound down whilst watching TV; on the positive side they may allow themselves to be totally absorbed in the images and sounds, closing themselves off from the outside world (something that’s difficult to do in a gallery environment).

Potentially more people can view an online show and perhaps one of the greatest pros is that the viewer can interact with the artist (which I find a little ironic given the remote and virtual nature of the exhibition in comparison with a physical exhibition which is supposedly more ‘personal’).

I’d be pleased if anyone wants to leave feedback, thoughts, reactions…

http://www.stramashspace.org/exhibitions/current.html

I’ve just been snatching the odd minute here and there during the past few weeks to finish off my videos and soundtracks started in NYC, other commitments getting in the way.

Considering the lack of quality time to dedicate to my work, the results have been surprising. The most exciting aspect has been creating sound that works with the images. I mostly adapted field recordings, adopting a similar approach to the one I use for video editing.

Never knowing the end result and letting the creative process guide the outcome has allowed each video to take on a life of its own… strangely similar to the way I paint.

I do bear in mind though that I may just be making the best of the material I have and if I had set out to make the videos (in their final form) they may be very different and perhaps more successful, but that seems to be the job of a film-maker, not an experimental video-artist.

Editing the videos from NYC has allowed me to lose myself in great memories…

The visuals are ready, I just need to work on the audio. The video I uploaded to vimeo this evening sticks out a little from the others, it has audio that seems to work well, but images that may need to be tweaked.

It’s a video-walk from 42nd Street (Times Square) to 19th Street (where I was staying) – I followed the line of the pavement relentlessly, so everyone had to move out of my way, I wasn’t popular.

I was initially grabbed by the ‘line’ falling across the screen, but now I’ve finished the first cut it is actually the ‘grid’ that appears regularly that looks really interesting. So, I may do another cut tomorrow, featuring just the grid.

Just finished this video, filmed in Toys’R’Us in Times Square, NYC – I was almost thrown out by a security guard! The lights on the wall next to the escalator reminded me of a Dan Flavin installation and was just waiting to be filmed…

New York was such an amazing experience – didn’t visit one gallery (fed up I didn’t have time to see the Alexander McQueen), but filmed constantly and took hundreds of Lomo photos. So, it looks like I’m going to be busy editing over the coming weeks – good timing as I’ve just sprained my ankle, so not that mobile.

Some shows in the pipeline, hopefully they’ll come off, who knows?

NYC 1. Times Square by Jonathan Moss

I’ve just returned from the opening of a show of my work in a museum north of Toulouse. I think it went well, lots of people wanted to talk to me about my videos, paintings and prints, but it did seem a strange experience as it was the culmination of months of work creating new paintings and oddly, seeing them hung, I felt a little removed from the situation as if I were viewing work by another artist.

To help the understanding of the context of my work, I made a small speech (in French!!!!).

“- So, what do I paint?

I have an obsession with beautiful surfaces and with the contrast between light and dark, those works are objects that have evolved over a long period of time – months playing with paint in my studio.

Layers and layers of paint are applied and then rubbed away, many times. I live with the works and usually have a battle with them to find that elusive something that makes them strong images that hold the viewer’s attention. They are not easy images to make…

When are they finished? They really are the results of a long process, snapshots of a period of my life – akin to a journey and I have to decide when I have reached the destination.

– When I am asked by strangers what I paint, I usually tell them ‘lines’… obviously they expect something like: hills, people, flowers. But to paint a line sounds obscure… but it isn’t. All of these works have their origin in my experience of nature. I paint what I see with my eyes… I used to paint landscapes (evident in some of the large prints), now I paint zooms of landscapes, close-ups, but not taken directly from the tangible world, taken from my videos of that world.

The videos are not what you expect, they are not manipulated images, just video-walks in nature. Close-up images of grass, stones, rocks, water…

My paintings are based on those images, journeys in nature, but removed from our usual understanding of it.

– So, what will you take away with you from this exhibition?

You can view them as aide-memoires – something to trigger a distant, fleeting memory or feeling of a place you may have visited through the minutiae of nature: uneven, weathered stone textures, cracks in rocks, dry earth, moving grass and trees, drips revealing the passage of time – the elegance and simplicity of nature pared down to its essential components.

– I hope you enjoy the show and perhaps return to experience it in a quieter atmosphere and maybe allow yourself to be lost in the world I’ve created.”

The curator was very pleased with how it looked and has a few ideas to help promote my work… one of them being for me to exhibit at a friend’s gallery in Dubai – she thinks my work will go down well in Muslim countries due to its abstract nature – why didn’t I think of that?

Looking ahead now… I’m off to New York in a couple of weeks time with my wife; it will be a great opportunity to create a new body of work. The guy we’re staying with has some crazy ideas about getting me an exhibition in the Chrysler Building! Any building would be good enough for me!!