University Campus Suffolk

An Experiment with materials.

Since the beginning of this project I had a set vision of painting realist portraits. After a very useful and informative critical review of my work with some fellow peers and tutors, it was suggested that I should consider working with other mediums and not restrict myself to painting.

After giving this some thought I decided to revisit my passion for street art which perhaps offers the most contemporary form of portraiture.

One artist has always interested me with his distinct use of materials and unorthodox methods of creating a portrait.

Vhils – a Portuguese street artist who turns plastered buildings into iconic works of art. He begins by coating brick walls with plaster or white paint and then carves away specific areas revealing a very detailed impression of a face. However, what interested me foremost was his interest in turning ordinary people into icons.

“They are all people I have met briefly in cities where I have created murals. I like the idea of turning ordinary, common people into icons, to contrast this with the need people seem to have to create icons in the first place. Instead of creating icons out of people who have changed history, like what Warhol was doing with Mao and others, I take an ordinary person and try and make people think about the ordinary citizens who struggle every day to eke a living in contemporary society.” (Vhils, n.d. cited in Lazinc, n.d.)

This theory of turning the ignored and everyday person back into someone of value and status is crucial to the concept that underpins my work.

After accepting that I could not throw myself at the nearest brick wall and start painting on it without getting arrested, I thought of a material that I could work onto, something I could paint onto and carve away at. My solution, with its obvious connections and connotations with homelessness – Cardboard.

I had found some corrugated cardboard lying around and of a fairly large scale. After scavenging the cardboard I painted a white ground over it and then painted one of my found images in a stencil style in black paint. My strategy was to paint the image using three tones, the white ground as highlights, the black for the darkest tones and for the middle tone my plan was to tear away the surface of the cardboard to reveal the bare corrugated cardboard underneath.

Embedded is a speeded up video of me blocking in the darkest tones of the face.

Having reflected on my previous portrait work I have felt that my more highly finished realist work may be more appreciated for its technical construction than for its subject matter. I was looking for a way for the subject matter to be more prominent as it holds more importance than my technical abilities to paint. I felt that a whole show of purely realist work would not capture the breadth of the issue I am trying to tackle. It is possible that I may incorporate the two together but I shall be governed by the overall look, design and tone of my degree show.

Ok time it’s to experiment!

Ref: Lazinc, n.d. Vhils. [online] Available at: http://www.lazinc.com/artist/vhils [Accessed 06 March 2014].

Secondary Imagery – Could it be the answer?

To begin with my original idea was to paint from primary sources, mainly photographs taken by myself. I initially wanted to use primary images so I would have full control over composition and choice of participants. However, I have become aware that working with a small group of agencies may only give me a narrow view of the issues surrounding homelessness. Whilst researching into the world of homelessness it is becoming more apparent that the problem and threat of homelessness is beginning to effect a much wider range of people than I first anticipated.

Perhaps the use of secondary images will help to address this issue much more effectively and to connect to a wider audience. If the photographs are not my own, I would not be presenting my own feelings on the subject, therefore allowing the subject matter to speak for itself. However, I do understand that whoever took the secondary images may have loaded these images with their own opinions but my project is also about the existing view, perceptions and preconceptions of homelessness.

I do not wish to work solely from secondary images as I still want to express some of my own views and knowledge of the subject, however, I still want to keep the overall tone of the work subjective.

Christian Boltanski used found images taken from obituary sections in newspapers which were then manipulated, reducing the photographs detail thus making the portraits less recognisable. Thereby making the work subjective.

Boltanski’s work was partly about the loss of identity and restoring individuality to those that had been forgotten. This echoes some of the concerns of my own work. This loss of identity is also a serious consequence of homelessness. When somebody becomes homeless, their identity can be forgotten. Who they once were often holds no significance to most of us. Everyone’s life has an importance and value. Hopefully through this project I will be able to depict the depth and value of the people portrayed.

The Possibilities of Social Realism?

I have been giving some thought as to the possibilities of perhaps utilising iconic compositions to explore issues of status and equality for this project. I have looked at the work of other artists who have used this approach to good effect.

Contemporary portraitist Jonathan Yeo borrows heavily from Gainsborough’s Mr and Mrs Andrews. In the Park Bench 2012 Yeo has subverted Gainsboroughs portrait of Mr and Mrs Andrews by replacing them in his own painting with Sharon Stacey and Ben Scallon, two homeless people who the charity crisis work with. The Andrews country estate in Suffolk is replaced with Victoria park in east London. Yeo takes a risk in tackling such an iconic composition, shadowing the work of Gainsborough could invite many negative comparisons, but for me it works well.

The irony when comparing the sitters and their surroundings in the respective paintings is unavoidable, but Yeo still manages to make an interesting and fresh painting in its own right. Perhaps the work is helped by the fact that his usual portrait practice consists mainly of depicting the rich, the famous and the powerful, therefore the irony is not just in comparing his work with Gainsborough’s, but in comparing it with his own back catalogue. By inviting these comparisons himself Yeo has made a bold move.

Questioning and challenging your own artistic practice in this way can help to push your work in new directions and hopefully to new heights. It would be fairly safe to do this in the comfort of your own studio space, but to test it in such a public way as Yeo has could be considered a brave effort.

Although the method of mixing contemporary figures with well-known and classic compositions is nothing new, it can still be very effective when executed well. It is a ploy used often by another contemporary portrait artist Kahinde Wiley.

Wiley’s canvases predominately feature various young black men in classic portrait compositions exploring themes such as prestige, status, opportunity and equality. It is an approach that could be explored in my own work as I hope to address similar issues.

For more on Jonathan Yeo: http://www.jonathanyeo.com/

For more on Kahinde Wiley: http://www.kehindewiley.com/