the surfaces of the sculptural 'woodwork' pieces have progressed which has in turn inspired something else...
see previous states of this work in progress here: on making art again and not a painting, not a sculpture.on the much smaller panels (gesso on wood), there is a deep bloom of patina, quite muted and monochromatic at the moment, with the illusion of atmospheric depth (if it is a given that painting is always an illusion).
and inbetween things, some sketchbook drawing...
...in the new year i decided to watch three tarkovsky films almost back-to-back (a feat of visual endurance) with some sideline dipping into 'sculpting in time'. it was interesting to compare tarkovsky's writings on art and film to the 'the non-object through painting' (with only six illustrations!) - slow looking, slow narratives, subtle signs and symbols that we wait (or wish) to discover for what they might reveal to us about the perilous course (and meaning) of life - allusions and analogies aplenty.art is born and takes hold wherever there is a timeless and insatiable longing for the spiritual, for the ideal: that longing which draws people to art.andrei tarkovsky, sculpting in timethere are always books of various kinds 'open' here, as art seems unavoidably connected to various strands of philosophical thinking - artists are natural thinkers although we may take some time to arrive at any clear conclusions.last week i read an excerpt of foucault's the order of things; back in 2007 a work colleague had mentioned this book, because of foucault's critical discussion of the interplay of analogies or 'similitudes' as he terms them, to communicate and construct a universal 'taxonomy' of knowledge (inspired by a story by borges). this resonated with me:the interplay of duplicated resemblances to all the realms of nature; it provides all investigation with an assurance that everything will find its mirror and its macrocosmic justification on another and larger scale; it affirms, inversely, that the visible order of the highest spheres will be found reflected in the darkest depths of the earth. michel foucault, the order of thingsi found some of foucault's textual expressions quite poetic (obviously in translation) but mostly it seemed too convoluted in its reasoning and argument to grasp it fully. i could see how my work colleague found this book a stimulating read, as a collector of things, how someone working in art or education could create new taxonomies, creating new meanings and connections out of collections of things. you can read more about foucault's concepts here.however, foucault's reference to 'nature' drew me back into thinking once more about the miniature world of lichens, and also to many years back, when i worked for a while in a herbal dispensary, learning more about various healing plants and their connections to organs and functions of the body. i recall the 'story' my boss told me of the plant usnea (a type of hairy lichen, also known as oak moss), how it was once harvested from the rotting skulls of dead soldiers and then used to treat the wounds and infections of the other (alive!) soldiers in the battle field. i am not sure how true this story is although the plant is known for its antibiotic properties. extracts of willow bark reduces pain & inflammation and oak bark is a powerful astringent, suggesting that their 'nature' or constitution (such as willows near flowing water) somehow aptly signifies their medicinal benefits.thinking of weeping willows and oak trees and the history of herbal medicine (many herbal cures & remedies originate from china) draws me back to the non-object through painting again and to the notion of the 'holistic'. the inter-connectedness of nature feels to be one of one vast, breathing organism, a symbiosis of forms and space, between being and non-being, as he describes:true resemblance lies in the allusivity to the invisible dimension that permeates the concrete particularity.françois jullienthe ambiguity that resides between space and form, between the real and the imagined, the perceived and the invisible is difficult to express in art without some outward expression of an object, a physical, lasting presence - which leads me back to materiality of process and the making of art in the physical absence of the 'thing' that it represents, and that in time the 'thing' will make itself visible again. is this the difference between western reasoning & eastern spiritualism..? that a form need not have to represent (or depict) the original form (a look-a-likeness) to be truthful, but could appear as a re-representation in a new form/space, as an emblem or a symbol for it, or (as i have understood from the book), a 'transcendence' of it. in essence, one need not 'picture' the whole form to 'see' it whole.also fascinating to watch a while back, was the bbc documentary 'the strange science of decay', how slime mould so efficiently & intelligently 'grows' and maps out a network in the search for nutrients for its survival, a pattern mirroring modern transport systems - and thinking along similar lines, how certain cells in the body when observed under the microscope function like miniature cities, or how the network of blood vessels mirror the spreading branches of a tree. this is not the stuff of science analogy, it is the stuff of life and the cosmos (but i am not a scientist).
last summer i took some photographs of grape mould through the lens of a cheap (a child's) microscope...
...and a couple years ago, while photographing some lichens, i also stopped to gaze at the miniature landscape of mosses growing on a grave. who wouldn't find such micro-landscapes fascinating to observe?
...
...i was reminded of a more reflective, spiritual path in art earlier this week on hearing about the death of the catalan painter, antoni tàpies. for the media to describe tàpies as an abstract painter (abstract reduced to the expression of a style) rather misses the material complexity and the philosophical, symbolic content so evident in much of his work. i first got to know about tàpies' work when i was an art student and his work regularly appeared in the high-end galleries of london. around this time, the work of the artist anselm kiefer also started to become more widely known and there are many similarities in their work.for all the ambiguity of my painting [et amicorum, 1978], i wanted it to express a central theme: it signifies both a symbolic gift to all friends of painting - only they really know that its beauty belongs only to those who love it! - and a homage to my best friends, books...antoni tàpies [in tàpies, andreas franzke]
lichenscape, a material world in macro
lichenscape I is one of my recent paintings, currently on show in an art exhibition at the harleston gallery, norfolk. here is the painting in situ, above a dark grey marble fireplace in one of the upper galleries...
[lichenscape I, harleston gallery, norfolk]
at the recent preview evening someone saw a similarity in the material surface elements of lichenscape to a scientific image which was published in the guardian newspaper that very same day! (friday) - an image taken by the nasa hubble space telescope of the distant galaxy Centaurus A...'Resembling looming rain clouds on a stormy day, dark lanes of dust crisscross the giant elliptical galaxy Centaurus A. Hubble's panchromatic vision, stretching from ultraviolet through near-infrared wavelengths, reveals the vibrant glow of young, blue star clusters and a glimpse into regions normally obscured by the dust.The warped shape of Centaurus A's disk of gas and dust is evidence for a past collision and merger with another galaxy. The resulting shockwaves cause hydrogen gas clouds to compress, triggering a firestorm of new star formation. These are visible in the red patches in this Hubble close-up.At a distance of just over 11 million light-years, Centaurus A contains the closest active galactic nucleus to Earth. The center is home for a supermassive black hole that ejects jets of high-speed gas into space, but neither the supermassive or the jets are visible in this image.' © NASA 2011
Image © NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage[new stars born into a distant galaxy, and there's a 'supermassive' black hole in there, somewhere]so, this serendipitous, inter-stellar connection has signalled the opportunity to take a closer look at the cosmic surface of this painting...
my visual influences are many & varied, including the natural, microscopic and biological world, but equally satellite images of the earth and outer space. the link to a faraway galaxy is perhaps a tenuous one to make for this painting, but when i have observed the intricate patterns of mould, algae or lichens growing on a surface i am always reminded of the visual comparisons and sychronicity between such things, even within a discreetly colonised surface there is a small universe all of its own...such small surface elements are often discovered in places of structural decay or simple neglect, where nature has (naturally enough) taken precedence over the man-made environment, where the material elements of time & nature are etched deep into surfaces, with a sense of solitude or melancholia quietly pervading the scene. i am also intrigued by how seemingly abandoned places are very much 'alive' and 'active' and resonate with a hidden history...thinking back to the expanding universe and the cosmos, also caused me to think again of a painting in the tate modern art collection, cosmos and disaster by david alfaro siqueiros.
Cosmos and Disaster (Cosmos y desastre) circa 1936. Duco, Pyroxilin, sand, wood on copper mesh over plywood© Tate/Estate of David Alfaro Siqueirosduco is a brand of enamel paint and pyroxilin cellulose car paint. it is a painting in which the use of unconventional materials (at the time) seem to give birth to the image, arising out of the process of painting, and yet the artist must have had some initial concepts in its making beforehand - as if the multitude of personal thoughts and feelings surfaced and directed the outcome of the painting. siqueiros ran experimental painting workshops in new york city at around the time of this painting, and one of his students was jackson pollock.i think i work in a similar way, having in my mind the essence of a 'subject' and the materials & processes to realise it, but the conclusion of the work is arrived at through the material engagement with process. i like to discover or unearth small incidents along the way - but i erase things too. the lower left of lichenscape was later blocked out, but some underlying texture still shows through when light hits the surface.i should like to tackle this subject again (from mould, decay, lichens), to take it forward into more ambitious, larger scale works (but i would need some money and a much larger studio to pursue this!). it is a subject immersed in the material elements of the environment, but like appearance, metaphor and meaning in art, the narrative is subjective, generative and varied.sadly, lichenscape II (a more muted grey painting) did not survive my long-term 'critical eye' and it now resides in a tray in sixteen very ragged canvas pieces... perhaps something new will materialise out of this random act of destruction?
lichenscape I, 2010, mixed media on canvas, 95cm x 95cm...are there any questions..?...lichenscape I is currently on show at the Harleston Gallery norfolk, from 18 June to 11 July 2011...current exhibitionsReunion Refresh @ Reunion Gallery, 5 Feb – 22 Oct 2011HWAT exhibition 2011 @ Harleston Gallery, 18 June to 11 July 2011...