‘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

‘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

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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.

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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″

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

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The Factual Nonsense Period

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

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