Leigh Cobley: Artist
The history of art has a long tradition of Romantacism and the individual’s contemplation of nature. Many artists have tried to recreate nature and its organic forms, generally for an audience who are indifferent to primal nature in itself.
It is an irony of the art world that in the production of “art works” which seem to rever or uphold nature, they are in fact destroying that which they seek to represent. Cut down a tree. Take away its intricate shapes and features. Change it into a flat banal surface. Paint a picture upon it of what it once was!
If modernism is about purity of form and truth to materials, the current body of work takes that premise further towards conclusion, by drawing attention to the original forms that are usually depicted in Romantacism. By dripping paint onto canvas Pollock was showing the true nature of paint. It is a liquid substance and he was letting it do what was in its nature, as opposed to manipulating it to represent something it wasn't. But he still used the wooden canvas, (which was portraying wood as something it wasn't).
Just as, during the evolution of modern art, paint has become its own thing, now the true nature of the surface it is generally applied to is revealed. The original natural found object is deconstructed and given a new significance.
The use of natural found objects was a starting point. Since then, man made found objects have been used. Discarded man made objects and scrap wood, upon which modernist painting principles have been applied. By cutting away the smooth surface of the wood we can reveal the intricate interior surface quality. Using colour to highlight the unevenness and erosion of the surfaces, to show how these objects can take on a new meaning from the functional properties which they served before having been discarded.
Purity of form? Maybe, but why use paint at all if we are remaining true to the essence of the wooden source material? The work here created has evolved out of painting and the subject was always landscape or nature. Here, the working methods of sculpture and painting have been exchanged. Painting 3dimensional objects and sculpting 2dimensional ones. The striated painted surfaces are sculptural, Cutting into a flat surface gives it sculptural properties that are of equal importance to colour.
What is painting? Essentially it is considered to be the act of applying a liquid substance to a surface, which is generally either wooden or stretched upon a wooden frame. It is not, therefore, merely about the purity of form of the rough / smooth surface but also of the substance (paint) which is generally assumed to be present in an art practice.So the bright colours applied to the various man made and natural surfaces may be controlled by the artist but they have been manipulated in a certain way, specifically to highlight the natural forms and qualities. The paint acts of its own accord through both gravity and its fluidity, reacting to the surface it covers.
The sculptural properties in the shapes developed by nature are of primary importance and are far more intricate and interesting in their organic simplicity than when they are recreated in representation through the plastic arts.
Links: e-mail me
It is an irony of the art world that in the production of “art works” which seem to rever or uphold nature, they are in fact destroying that which they seek to represent. Cut down a tree. Take away its intricate shapes and features. Change it into a flat banal surface. Paint a picture upon it of what it once was!
If modernism is about purity of form and truth to materials, the current body of work takes that premise further towards conclusion, by drawing attention to the original forms that are usually depicted in Romantacism. By dripping paint onto canvas Pollock was showing the true nature of paint. It is a liquid substance and he was letting it do what was in its nature, as opposed to manipulating it to represent something it wasn't. But he still used the wooden canvas, (which was portraying wood as something it wasn't).
Just as, during the evolution of modern art, paint has become its own thing, now the true nature of the surface it is generally applied to is revealed. The original natural found object is deconstructed and given a new significance.
The use of natural found objects was a starting point. Since then, man made found objects have been used. Discarded man made objects and scrap wood, upon which modernist painting principles have been applied. By cutting away the smooth surface of the wood we can reveal the intricate interior surface quality. Using colour to highlight the unevenness and erosion of the surfaces, to show how these objects can take on a new meaning from the functional properties which they served before having been discarded.
Purity of form? Maybe, but why use paint at all if we are remaining true to the essence of the wooden source material? The work here created has evolved out of painting and the subject was always landscape or nature. Here, the working methods of sculpture and painting have been exchanged. Painting 3dimensional objects and sculpting 2dimensional ones. The striated painted surfaces are sculptural, Cutting into a flat surface gives it sculptural properties that are of equal importance to colour.
What is painting? Essentially it is considered to be the act of applying a liquid substance to a surface, which is generally either wooden or stretched upon a wooden frame. It is not, therefore, merely about the purity of form of the rough / smooth surface but also of the substance (paint) which is generally assumed to be present in an art practice.So the bright colours applied to the various man made and natural surfaces may be controlled by the artist but they have been manipulated in a certain way, specifically to highlight the natural forms and qualities. The paint acts of its own accord through both gravity and its fluidity, reacting to the surface it covers.
The sculptural properties in the shapes developed by nature are of primary importance and are far more intricate and interesting in their organic simplicity than when they are recreated in representation through the plastic arts.
Links: e-mail me
