Pretend the world is funny and forever
AMOR / Mexico City, Mexico
May 2017
PRETEND THE WORLD IS FUNNY AND FOREVER.
Cut and stick (don't stay stuck)
It is relatively recently that I have been in a position to live from the income of my art. Largely thanks to the commercial pay off from making paintings. In years gone by I could barely even afford to buy the small canvases from the £1 store that all my early paintings were made on. I go forward, my value changes.
This isn't a victim storyline.
Life is tough. Creatively is strong. I've always found ways to express myself even when my bank account had other ideas. The inexpensive immediacy found in the act of cutting and sticking found images, textures and surfaces has saved me from a productive void time and time again.
Freedom / Free-stuff
I used to work in the bookshop at Tate Modern and at the end of each month I could keep the magazines that were unsold. This period was mostly pre-iPhone and before our reality began to sink into the virtual realm. Those art and fashion magazines were my analogue lifeline to visual information. The bookshop received a lot of physical mail and there was always a steady stream of used padded envelopes being thrown away. Their colourful stamps caught my attention. As a child I collected stamps, attracted to the exotic imagery from far off lands. I began to take the envelopes home with me. I guess old habits die hard.
CRUISING. SHOPPING. DISENGAGED.
We are bombarded by capitalist visualizations of extreme luxury and desire. I often find myself drawn to people in zones of isolation within these images, they're like islands in a storm of abundance.
Lifecycle.
Each envelope operates as a facsimile for you and me. Like our bodies they are temporary shells used to carry and pass information. For a brief moment in time we get to hear and be heard. Creativity is a celebration of that and it's why you're looking at these quiet crumpled works right now.
END