Today is exactly one month until my show opens, and having lifted my head above the soup of concerns associated with actually making the work, I’ve begun considering the partnership between imagery and the written backdrop to my exhibition.
For at least 12 years I have been painting in an abstract language which, until recently I’ve neglected to actively examine with a wider consciousness.
Working in a relatively isolated arena it is remarkably easy to become disengaged from the kind of dialogue and criticism that is helpful for contextualising and developing one’s work. Thankfully, my decision to apply to study for an MA demanded that I begin exactly that process by writing a study proposal. I was offered a place at Camberwell in March, though in an effort to save up for it, I won’t begin my study until September 2010.
Writing and talking is obviously pretty essential to art. It’s perhaps difficult for the observer to appreciate therefore how this clear link can become lost as a result of creative isolation, fostering an attitute of disempowerment and “fringe thinking”.
Once you begin to venture back into the territory of sharing in word form though, it’s possible to understand how this can become the dominant facor in shaping and characterising one’s practice, making for something much more whole than it might otherwise be.
Having used my own short story as the starting point for my forthcoming show I have no hesitation in admitting that it has breathed new life into a previously “autopilot” approach to my studio practice. Words and visual art are inextricably linked in our culture, and though I’m not a particulatly verbal individual I can clearly see the role that a clear narrative provides for shaping and informing imagery, even that of a non-representational nature.
