Absurdity without art

This week I’ve been working on a collaborative piece for The Somerville Foundation and the UCS Science dept. The brief was: we (12 artists) were to add an ephemeral drawing to the wall of the Waterfront Gallery and to embellish a 3D printed heart (which was slightly oversized).

The science lecturer told us a little bit about the foundation and at home I checked out their website. We were told about the issues that can arise due to the patients parents being understandably over cautious, often resulting in the children’s childhood experiences being limited. The charity supports patients throughout their lives, as well as the obvious physical support, they also provide therapy and mental support.

So bearing this in mind I considered possibilities around the fragility of the heart, I thought that I could make the heart appear to be made out of fragile materials like porcelain, or glass. A ceramic heart could be decorated with blue transfers, this also made me think of tattoo’s and the hearts popularity as a feature of body art, both anatomically accurate and pictorial images. I considered adding a crackle glaze to heighten the delicate nature of the damaged heart. The red heart brought to mind a bloodied boxing glove, if I were to give it a stitched up wound from an operation I thought that the threads could be made to look like the laces of a glove.

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I searched the web for contemporary artists who’d used a heart in their work.

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To start to create the heart I sanded the surface to remove the ridges with a Dremel I then primed it with grey spray paint and left it to dry by the stove. My wife noticed a smell of hot melting plastic, and I noticed that whilst drying it had started to become flexible (it a relatively low temperature) enabling me to manipulate it. So with the idea to create a scar on the heart I puckered up the surface and allowed it to cool. I then applied an undercoat of crimson acrylic paint.

I then applied a darker wash for definition, added a cream colour for the fat and red and blue for the veins and arteries.

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I then added oil based ink, which is transparent providing a blood effect, this is sealed in with more wax as the ink takes a week to dry (as it was on a non-absorbant surface and I only had a day)  I stitched up the scar with electrical wire and book binding thread. To provide the wet look I sprayed the wax with a quick drying sealant which is semi gloss.

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I used a Dremel to bore out the superior vena cava and the ascending aorta, drilled the hole for the fishing line (the hanging thread) and used some filler to shape the openings. I fixed in some brass cogs (clock parts), to show the surgeons intervention and the potential for ongoing care. I masked up the heart and primed it. I later added gold leaf and red acrylic washes prior to varnishing.

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I then finished my drawing in the gallery and hung my dry heart.

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The Scarred FOR Life exhibition (2016), is on throughout April at the Waterfront Gallery, UCS, Ipswich

This photo blog shows me making a 6ft square painting titled Semiotics in Praxis V – spraying (2014). It’s an enlarged representation of the HSE symbol warning people to wear respiratory protection. The running drips are encouraged and the canvases are covered in wrinkled newsprint to provide texture. It references my previous work in the oil and gas industry and my illness which has been connected to exposure to chemicals.

I now use photographs of this painting as a self portrait, and as my avatar on social media websites.

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This series of photographs shows me making prints as part of a series of images where I have appropriated and adapted Goya’s print Great deeds! Against the dead!

I create two prints, one a relief linocut and the second is a zinc plate etching with aquatint. The photographs and their captions walk you through the  process of creation, from my original pencil drawing to the final prints…

Click on each gallery to open a slideshow with captions and full size images.

Relief printing: –

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Acid etching with aquatint: –

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Further inspired by the Chapman brothers and a happy accident (see the gallery below) I plan to add to the print in various ways. For example I want to embellish the white areas representing the missing corpses, I’m thinking of adding shredded Chinese newspaper print, red ink finger prints, scrunched up tissue paper, etc. I’ve also considered colourising the prints using watercolour paint, aquarelle ink, or by using multiple lino blocks and additional stages during the lino print process.

Here is a photo of the happy accident and some of my photoshopped ideas…

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This post is a look at some of the books I’ve dipped into since Christmas.

Grayson Perry’s Playing to the Gallery is a collection of 36 postcards, the cards have images that are made by the artist in the fashion of a traditional British  postcard. It’s a satirical look at contemporary art and the market in which Perry finds himself a major part. An outsider looking in commentary, from someone who’s now an insider giving his nose a treat, for the amusement of all.

MoMa Highlights, dare I say it, it does what it says on the cover… an amazing collection, which I was lucky enough to see in October 2015. This book provides an informative reminder of 350 works from the museum’s archive. From Picasso’s cubist paintings to Kathryn Bigelow’s movie Hurt Locker.

Introducing ____ : A Graphic Guide I have several of this series of books, which I find most entertaining and useful. They cover theories and concepts in broad strokes, using illustrations they effectively explain complicated and challenging ideas. The four I’ve been looking at this year include Hegel: one of the most influential philosophers of the 20th Century. Barthes:  the french academic who worked in the field of semiotics and structuralism during the 1960’s. Existentialism: a branch of philosophy that I find fascinating, it was behind my use of the word ‘absurd’ in my blog title and informed much of my Time (2015) installation. Lastly I’ve listened to the guidebook on Time, I downloaded the Kindle version and had it read out to me by my iPad.

Gadamer: A guide… by Chris Lawn. This is a recent purchase I’ve yet to read beyond the blurb. My interest in the subject was sparked by a tweet by Dr. Jim Walsh who posted a link to one of his articles published by Conway Hall about how we see art today, at its heart was a convincing argument supporting Gadamer’s concept of aesthetics compared to that of Kant’s.

Pop Art: A Colourful History by Sooke. I find this author very easy to read, the book supports a documentary which I also enjoyed. The subject matter is evident by the title and many of those discussed within are as familiar to us today as they’d hope, since their art is as everyday as the subject matter they painted (through advertising, design, computer apps, etc). But it includes some artists which are less well known; there is a whole chapter on female pop artists including Rosalyn Drexler and Evellyne Axell.

Thinking About Art by Penny Huntsman is a text book for Art History A level students. Full of great quality images, with its companion website, it deals with art from the antiquity right up to the contemporary in an enthusiastic way. Great for the curious beginner and someone looking to brush up their study techniques.

This is Dali by Andrew Rae. A quick guide to Dali’s life and work in an illustrative and amusing format.

Here are few other books I have taken off the shelf to peruse and digest over the next few weeks:-

•  How to Write About Contemporary Art by Gilda Williams (Kindle)
• Time by Amelia Groom ed. (Whitechapel Publishers)
• The Illustrated A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking
• Marcel Proust’s Search for Lost Time by Patrick Alexander
• How Proust Can Change Your Life by Alain De Botton (Kindle)