If you have been wondering where I have escaped to for the last month or so (and let’s face it, most of you have) I can joyously claim that I’ve actually been getting some bloody work done. The last few weeks have been a relentless pursuit of finished articles before the bite of winter renders the studio I work in uninhabitable. I find it a bit of a struggle to exact a balance between making stuff and networking. Often I fluctuate in preference between one and the other. Over the last few weeks though, a very tangible rhythm has emerged that has resulted in a relative abundance of finished works.
So where the bloody hell are these finished works, I hear you cry. Well, I’m not going to show you them all. Instead, I shall tantalise you simply by producing one piece of work at a time. So let’s start things off in style shall we? Ladies and gentlemen, I give to you, a spice rack. Yes, a spice rack:
‘The Spice Rack.’ Comprised of paint made from 16 spices, applied to a surface and stored in bottles.
This is not just any old spice rack though. Here, I wish to initiate a discourse between the nature of paint and painting. Applying meaning to paint by attaching experiential sentiment to the bottles the paint is contained within. The painting itself is passive, acting merely as a reference to the bottles. The painting is completed to allow an audience to further identify with the paints, but it is not a means to an end in it’s own right. It is within the bottles from which meaning is attached, and so the idea of commercialism and the prospect of purchasing memory and sentiment that is removed from personal experience is called into question.
I am toying with the idea of presenting it for the John Moores painting prize next year. I believe it challenges the idea of what can be considered a painting and as such, it certainly possesses a level of intrigue. What do you think? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this piece in order for me to attain a reasonable understanding of an audience’s response.