Earlier Works: OOO+

THE DADORAIL OF DELUSION

A murmeration of bookworks.

News: The Tate Library Archive has secured a first edition copy of the yet-to-be-launched compendium of books : ‘The Dado Rail of Delusion.

See link below.
Tate Library Catalogue

This is NOT a CHRISTO

‘THE DADORAIL OF DELUSION’

A limited edition book of the books.. . . . . . . .

The tome comprises four ‘Continents’each hosting multicultural immigrants.

The ‘Continents’ were named after their DEITIES :-

VETUS MUNDO-PERTURBIA-MICROBIOGRAFICA-PROCRUSTEA


ETCETERA……………………

HOMUNCULUS SERIES:

Prior to bookworks I’d been working on a series of wall-panels

– ‘Homunculus (?)’.

I used unfamiliar materials and techniques that were either alien or uncomfortably inappropriate in some way.

I kept to the 4’x 4’size in part because it was half standard 8′ x 4′ sheets of construction material.

The following are examples of ‘Homunculus’ work produced during my ‘Established Artist Fellowship at UrbanGlass Studios, Brooklyn, NY.

1. ‘ELVIS’ diptych 48″ x 48″ neon on glass

2. ‘Escape Ladder’ 48″ x 48″ neon on glass.

3. ‘Big BANG’ 48″ x 48″ slumped glass on metal with a circular wall insert screen showing a 5 minute continuous loop video ‘Frog’s Porn’ to the sound of crowds alternately heckling and cheering.


A unifying factor in the ‘Homunculus’ series is size and scale.

8′ x 4′ – the standard sheet size for construction materials – led me to choose 4′ x 4′ as the best option.

This format avoided ‘landscapeness’ associated with horizontal formats whilst allowing a bit of ‘portrait’ potential.

I wanted them to have a real physical presence as well as the’windowness’of a traditional canvas.

This was a way of increasing the tension of ambiguity between objectness and illusion.

I would often begin the process setting objects deep into the surface – copper pipes, photographs, tools etc. and then completely covering them with canvas, paint, polyester resin.

It would then be a matter of stumbling across these ‘buried’elements and responding to their presence in some way.

I have used angle-grinders, routers and blowtorches to draw across and into the surface. I’ve used mirrors, sheet metal and photographs to re-assert flatness, soaked garments and vegetation in polyester resin.Attached toys, dripped enamel paint ….anything I thought might interfere or exagerate difference

Like a time-capsule benefactor anticipating discovery.

Flashback to the many moments where, like ‘proper’ builders did, I would set a tin full of poignant bits and pieces into the wet concrete of a newly-laid floor. ……always anonymously and always with only the slightest possibility of it being excavated.

‘Homunculus’ “Backless d.h. “See-through” 48″ x 48″


‘Homunculus ‘ wall panels (48″ x 48″ ):


The Factual Nonsense Period

Joshua Compston discussing the first Factual Nonsense exhibition containing ‘Factual Nonsense’ the painting.

FACTUAL NONSENSE GALLERY with ‘Factual Nonsense’ and ‘Excide Convention’
FACTUAL NONSENSE GALLERY with ‘Relative Truths’ and ‘Seamless’
FACTUAL NONSENSE‘. 1991, oil on canvas , 145cms x 211cms
‘A GUIDE FOR THE PERPLEXED’ 1991 145cms x 145cms oil on canvas
‘AKA V TEMPLATE’ 1992 oil on canvas 211cms x 390cms
‘RELATIVE TRUTHS’ 1993 oil on canvas 190cms x 390cms
‘IDIOT GREENS’ 1993 oil on canvas 211cms x 260 cms
‘EXCIDE CONVENTION’ 1992 oil on canvas 190cms x 190cms
‘THE CROSSING’ 1992 oil on canvas 140cms x 140cms

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